MIM(Prisons) is a cell of revolutionaries serving the oppressed masses inside U.$. prisons, guided by the communist ideology of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism.
Under Lock & Key is a news service written by and for prisoners with a focus on what is going on behind bars throughout the United States. Under Lock & Key is available to U.S. prisoners for free through MIM(Prisons)'s Free Political Literature to Prisoners Program, by writing:
MIM(Prisons) PO Box 40799 San Francisco, CA 94140.
I’m writing to ask if there is a way to receive the grievance
petition for Texas. As for here all grievances are answered the same.
The lawsuit that was in federal court due to COVID-19 was thrown out for
not exhausting administrative remedies. Also here at this unit we are
not allowed to wear N95 masks. We do not have any rights here.
MIM(Prisons) adds: This comrade is commenting on the fact that
grievances are constantly denied in Texas, like so many prison systems
in this country. Yet, without the proper paper trail of going through
all levels of the grievance process, your lawsuits are deemed invalid
thanks to the Prisoner Litigation Reform Act(PLRA) of Bill Clinton.
Before the PLRA there was actually a semblance of checks and balances
applied to conditions in U.$. prisons. Since then that has not been the
case, and abuse and humyn rights violations occur daily, unchecked. The
COVID-19 pandemic has helped bring that to the attention of the general
public.
This is why USW comrades have written grievance petitions in over a
dozen states to appeal to various state overseers to restore a semblance
of justice to these prison systems. While the victories have been
isolated, it has led to concrete organizing around concrete conditions
faced by prisoners as a class. These injustices demonstrate the bad
faith of the current system that offers no real solutions for the
oppressed.
It’s beautiful that now there’s a better connection with us who are
in this new sentence to a slow death due to the COVID-19 pandemic and
the actions of free society. The majority of these in-prison cases are
caused by nurses and pigs and other free-world staff who choose not to
wear masks, either in here or out there. It’s not our fault we catch
COVID-19 when we can’t go no further than the yard gates unless we’re
being escorted to the prison medical facilities, an outside hospital, or
to other yards or prisons. We’re not the ones who are the cause of the
spread of the disease inside these prisons, but we’ll get a Rule
Violation Report (RVR), which extends our sentence, for not wearing a
mask from a pig who isn’t wearing one themselves.
Also now there’s no programs for us prisoners to even gain any good
time kronos like attending CGA, AA, Anger Management, GED classes, or
college classes. The chapel isn’t running either but the chaplains still
show up to collect their check. Prisoners don’t have a way or avenue to
stay out of trouble, unless they are really doing nothing. Myself and
other prisoners have been harassed by the pigs for group exercising
together even while using social distance procedures. CDCR ain’t working
on helping us prisoners rehabilitate, we’re doing it our damn
selves.
Medical facilities on the yards won’t even do a check up on
individuals like myself, but they will call you up to draw your blood
for testing, for COVID or not. On some straight vampire shit but us, who
are the vampire slayers, the N.G.E. School of Carthage, slay the
vampires by the United Front for Peace in Prisons Statement of
Principles, which are:
Peace WE organize to end the needless conflicts and violence
within the U.$. prison environment. The oppressors use divide and
conquer strategies so that we fight each other instead of them. We will
stand together and defend ourselves from oppression.
Unity WE strive to unite with those facing the same struggles as
us for our common interests. To maintain unity we have to keep an open
line of networking and communication, and ensure we address any
situation with true facts. This is needed because of how the pigs
utilize tactics such as rumors, snitches and fake communications to
divide and keep division among the oppressed. The pigs see the end of
their control within our unity.
Growth WE recognize the importance of education and freedom to
grow in order to build real unity. We support members within our
organization who leave and embrace other political organizations and
concepts that are within the anti-imperialist struggle. Everyone should
get in where they fit in. Similarly, we recognize the right of comrades
to leave our organization if we fail to live up to the principles and
purpose of the United Front for Peace in Prisons.
Internationalism WE struggle for the liberation of all oppressed
people. While we are often referred to as “minorities” in this country,
and we often find those who are in the same boat as us opposing us, our
confidence in achieving our mission comes from our unity with all
oppressed nations who represent the vast majority globally. We cannot
liberate ourselves when participating in the oppression of other
nations.
Independence WE build our own institutions and programs
independent of the United $tates government and all its branches, right
down to the local police, because this system does not serve us. By
developing independent power through these institutions we do not need
to compromise our goals.
As we build and live by these Principles of the United Front for
Peace in Prisons, we destroy the monster that imperialist/capitalist
governments have created with this U.$. prison system.
Currently I’m in confinement in Florida, pending CM (Close
Management) waiting on state classification officer decision. PIGs
(Pro-Imperialist Goons) claim I was organizing or encouraging a riot or
disturbance. All a ploy to get me behind the door for pushing the pen
too effectively. I’ve just successfully appealed 4 disciplinary reports
(D.R.s) written against me, including a D.R. written by the Assistant
Warden.
In the mean time, I’m reading throw-back ULKs. Stuck in
No. 54, learning so much. MIM, you have been so much help in my gaining
political awareness, revolutionary transformation and personality. My
first ULK was in 2012. I haven’t looked back since. Thank you
so much.
I’m reading the article, “Coffee
house revolutionaries or real militants?” by an Ohio komrade, who
referred to MIM as coffee house revolutionaries, which I see as a
constructive complement rather than a dis. And as I expected, in
response MIM is not offended. I’m feeling this article because its
helping me realize that in the struggle, everybody can’t be infantry
guerrilla, the struggle need planners and other part players. The hand
is made of 5 fingers, and each finger plays an equally valuable role in
doing whatever the hand does.
If it wasn’t for the dialectics of coffee house revolutionaries like
MIM, I would not be as effective as I am today. I would still be
fighting these pigs with emotions rather than revolutionary
intelligence, discipline and creativity. In order for our struggle to be
effective, we need the historical analysis of coffee house
revolutionaries, just as we need solid boots on the ground. We are all
in the same struggle, against the very same enemy oppressor, and we are
effective and victorious as long as we never forget this one point in
unity for solidarity.
It’s only best that we learn from each other, constructive criticism
plays a major role in self-criticism. I did a drawing once of Obama,
with an obelisk in the background. MIM wrote back sending me a list of
historical reasons illustrating why Obama and obelisk should not be in
the same piece. The picture was contradicting itself more than doing
what it was intended to do; show Obama as a black face for capitalist
imperialist white supremacy. I missed my mark, and MIM made me see that
via the show of Obama’s repeated drone assassinations, mass
deportations, granting impunity to PIGs lynching us in the streets and
court rooms, he did nothing about mass incarceration, knowing that
Blacks and poors are being targeted. MIM showed me the truth, and being
a good revolutionary has a lot to do with gaining truth and putting that
truth into practice, and learning from the result of that practice.
MIM has been with me from my beginning stages, responding to all my
letters and requests for study materials, and guidance when no one else
cared or was able to care. I learned that i had to establish myself in
the struggle, and MIM made it easier for me to do so. The books, the
study materials, the jailhouse lawyer’s manuals and the plain old
camaraderie needed as a lone operative. MIM inspired a creativity in me
that the PIGs came to know and fear. PIGs are afraid of pen pushers, but
when you go to reaching out and over the heads of their impunity
granting bosses, they pay attention. There is nothing like a warden
receiving a phone call from someone, or several people on the outside
about some brutality that was not supposed to leak out from behind the
Amerikkkan iron curtain. I kept reporting to MIM and anyone I thought
cared, MIM would publish my reports, someone would read it and call the
institution. All it takes is one phone call. And you know when they get
phone calls, their body language tell it all, they speak without
words.
The bigger their show, the bigger their fear. One time in 2014 they
woke me up, sliding my cell door open with a bang at 1:00 in the
morning, cuffed me up and took me to the security building just to ask
me, “Who is MIM?” My only response was, “We want egalitarianism.” They
didn’t even know what egalitarianism was. These PIGs are terrified of
revolutionary civility. They expect us to behave like the animals
they’ve been conditioned to believe we are, and when we show the
opposite, we disarm them. They know we can go from zero to 100 in a
split second, but our self-control, organizing, discipline and
solidarity makes them unable to sleep at night.
Do your historic research, the revolutionary has never been the one
to initiate violence, violence has always been initiated by the
government. The revolutionary has only responded with self-defense.
Self-defense is a must. The first thing every revolutionary must learn
is that the capitalist-imperialist white supremacist is not just going
to peacefully pack up and go home. They’re not just gonna give up the
means of production and subsistence and power.
We need coffee house revolutionaries in the towers, at the computer
screens, in the libraries, etc etc. to let us know what we are dealing
with or what’s coming and the most effective scientific means of
engagement. Just as importantly, we need mechanics, technicians,
carpenters, plumbers, cooks, teachers. We all have to play our
individual part in this struggle as a collective, in theory and in
practice. MIM has taken on the practice of teaching theory and practice
and that’s what revolution is, theory in practice.
With MIM’s help, I have learned and I have grown to the point where I
am in solidarity with myself and others on the inside and outside, and I
am still learning and growing, making a difference by being different.
Sentenced to life for the gun, and being buried alive for the pent.
Thanks to MIM, who gave me precious time and undivided academic
attention, I’m giving these PIGs hell, with just an ink pen. Just
imagine me holding a gun again, this time genuinely rehabilitated. And I
am a state(enemy)-labelled sex offender. I believe in rehabilitation, I
don’t care who you are, you can be rehabilitated. You can be a
revolutionary, practice self-criticism, and let your action do the
talking. I’ve been in and out of prison more than half my life, and I
have never seen the state genuinely rehabilitate anyone. Genuine
rehabilitation is like freedom, you have to give it to yourself.
For every male prisoner locked up in the state of Pennsylvania, I
pose some questions:
Do a prison have the right to deprive you of food?
Do a prison have the right to deprive you of a shower?
Do a prison have the right to deprive you yard?
To determine when you can see your children and how long you can
hold your children?
Every prison in the state of Pennsylvania allow gay prisoners inside
of each prison to hold hands/hold each other, have make-out sessions and
have intercourse. The Department of Corrections in the state of
Pennsylvania even sell bras/panties, makeup, provide hormone injections
and sex changes.
Why can’t we hug/hold/kiss our girlfriends and wives for more than
three minutes on a visit?
Why don’t we fight for conjugal visits?
Do the prisons have the right to talk however they want?
Brothers, they don’t respect us nor treat us like human beings
because under the 13th Amendment, we are slaves. Under Dred Scot v.
Sanford, no black man has “rights that a white man is bound to
respect” and blacks shall never have rights under the Constitution.
Under Plessy v. Ferguson, we are cattle.
That is why correctional officers in the state of Pennsylvania do all
these things to us and why police officers in society can kill us with
little to no consequences.
Brothers, the female prisons in the state of Pennsylvania still have
everything and much more, that we allowed the D.O.C. to take from us,
men. Two female prisons fought to be treated like human beings and won
through pain and sacrifice.
This goes beyond our personal dislikes, gang colors, religious
perspectives and individual wants. Ask yourself, if two female prisons
can accomplish it, why can’t 3 or more male prisons do the same?
We at SCI-Albion believe we have the power to accomplish it, so on 1
November 2020 we are hunger striking. We are not helping the D.O.C. get
rich off of this oppression so we are not spending money on
commissary/cable/bake sales. WE will be doing more but can’t go into
that here.
We are a group comprised of Muslims from America and the Middle East,
Christians, a Pastor, G.D., Loc’s, Damus, Kings, Netas, neutrals old and
young. Blacks, Latinos and whites.
Here in Freedom, Love & Prosperity we promote unity and love.
With the freedom to be ourselves and stop the oppression of all peoples
including those in the LGBT community. We believe we are all one! We
believe every one has the potential to prosper and beat oppression. We
do not promote violence but awareness through group and social
activities. We believe love is the ultimate goal in order to achieve
unity of all minds, souls and spirits.
At the moment, during this pandemic and major outbreak inside
prisons, CDCR has decided that it is best to shuffle/transfer prisoners
like never before in prison history. There are transfers going on, on a
major scale, daily. The administration sent out a memo and order to open
up a ‘quarantine’ block in every prison across California designated for
people coming in from and going to another prison –- we are being
quarantined for fourteen days on our way in and out, at every stop.
Before, if you’d asked any prisoner in California if they ever got
transferred out a prison they didn’t wanna be in or got transferred due
to their custody points level dropping (therefore belonging to a
lower/higher security yard) they would answer ‘fuck no’!!! People would
be stuck in a Level 4 yard (high security) while being Level 3 (lower
security) eligible for up to years at a time – or at the very least, six
months. And now, at this precise moment and time of outbreak and
pandemic, CDCR decides to look at each case factor and execute transfers
according to their ‘code.’ People are coming in and out of every prison
in California to these designated ‘quarantine blocks.’ For the first
time ever, Level 1, 2, 3 and 4 are meeting up in these blocks, meeting
up from all prisons and transferring out to all prisons. It would be
irresponsible to think that this is not an operation by the system with
the intent and agenda to exterminate its population.
On paper, the administration is making it look good by conducting and
documenting daily medical and temperature checks for the two weeks of
quarantine, and doing two COVID-19 swab tests before allowing prisoners
on a transportation bus… but what CDCR is not telling the
public is that if one refuses to take a temperature check and refuses to
take the COVID-19 swab test, you will still be transferred, still get on
the bus, still spread whatever you have around, still use the same
showers, phone, water fountain, and be allowed to roam around!!! Yes,
the ones that refuse do not leave on the 14th day mark, instead they’re
documented as not transferring due to their refusal, etc. But CDCR still
transfers them after an additional week of being on ‘quarantine.’ In the
fifteen years I’ve been captive, never have I ever seen so many
transfers myself –- nor seen the prison system shuffled up in this
manner where we have about 10-15 prisons in one ‘block.’ We got people
from Chino, Folsom, Lancaster, Jamestown, Corcoran, Salinas, Delano, San
Quentin, Calipatria, the Bay, Solano, High Desert, all coming in four
times a week on a consistent basis, and we are all confined in these
newly implemented ‘quarantine blocks.’ How’s this for fighting
COVID-19?
One would be ignorant not to see what these suits and ties at the
table are putting in motion here. I’ve been doing my research and
talking to people as they come from all these prisons they are coming
from and it is amazing to hear how correctional officers and wardens are
bouncing people around within the prison itself before shipping
them out, how the administration gave out orders to correctional
officers to do this, do that, try this under the ruse of combating
COVID-19 while putting prisoners in harm’s way via reckless transfers.
The stories are lengthy and too many to describe, but I will do so in a
future piece and with proper equipment. For now, I’ll just use my case
and experience as a small window to provide insight to the public about
what the system is doing and to expose their agenda.
First off, I am a radikal intellectual, politikal prisoner, activist,
abolitionist, revolutionary, Sureno artist, who has been targeted by the
system throughout the years and well-documented. I was housed at New
Folsom for three years before the pandemic kicked off and I went under
quarantine. I had just got out the hole because the administration
attempted to blame and charge me for an attempted murder that I had no
knowledge of. I was back on the main line after the long battle of the
torture and mental stress of being in the hole, then out of nowhere, the
administration kidnaps me once again and I’m placed under another
‘investigation.’ They refused me my due process of signing a liability
chrono to go back to the yard, and instead stuffed me in the hole
again.
Then, as COVID-19 begins to worsen inside the prison, the
administration puts me on a bus … I end up in Lancaster … I’m there for
two weeks, then they let me run around the prison for one full day just
to come back to my living quarters to be informed that I’m gonna be
transferred again!!! I’m like, what the fuck is going on here? I’m
telling the counselor, captain, committee, that what they are doing is
wrong and how they putting me and everyone else at greater risk of
getting sick by doing this. They told me that is not them, its the
federal courts who ordered this!! I’m trying to tell them about all
they’re doing wrong and how I just got to that prison two weeks prior
that, etc. … nope, nothing, on another bus!! Now I get to Calipatria and
I come to find out that everyone around me is experiencing the same
thing! I was already in a yard of my ‘custody level’ so why continue to
shuffle people like there’s no tomorrow? It is clear to see what’s
happening here. If there’s a way I can file a lawsuit or join one
already taking place I would like to do that. If not, well fuck it, its
still fuck CDCR on mine!! Nothing about what this system is attempting
to do is towards a healthy California – the only ones making sure we
maintain a healthy structure is the prisoners ourselves and our loved
ones. The agenda of the system is still more boxes and forms of
genocide, war, population control.
This is a statement of unity issued by Dead Man Incorporated(DMI) to
inform all concerned of our alignment to and full co-operation with the
United Front for Peace in Prisons.
After discussion we have come to the general consensus that a unity
amongst us and other oppressed peoples caught up in the struggle would
best suit all involved in the interest of our common goal of ending the
tyranny of the imperialist states.
The maintaining of the principles of the UFPP are critical and
imperative in our mission. We, as DMI, value Peace, Unity, Growth,
Internationalism and Independence. From henceforth each of us promise to
uphold those principles; mind, body and spirit.
Furthermore, let it be known that We as DMI stand in alliance with
the UNited Struggle from Within.
The Maryland Prison Labor Organization (MPLO) exists for the purpose
of defending and preserving the rights and dignity of the incarcerated
working class men and women, who are confined to correctional facilities
within the State of Maryland.
Maryland’s incarcerated workers contend daily with abusive staff,
inequitable compensation, unsafe or unsanitary working environments,
arbitrary termination, inadequate health care, poor diet, and inhumane
conditions of confinement.
As a collective and as a Class, we find this set of circumstances
unacceptable, therefore our mission is to amend these circumstances by
securing social and economic justice for the thousands of imprisoned
laborers who have been exploited by Maryland’s Department of
Corrections, and who continue to endure such exploitation as a
consequence of the labor arrangement that persists behind the walls of
Maryland’s correctional facilities.
We are conscious of the fact that the labor we provide is critical to
the orderly and efficient functioning of the Department, and as a result
of the aforementioned realities, We, the members of the MPLO, seek the
following changes to the current labor arrangement within the state’s
prisons:
Higher Wages.
Equitable Good Conduct Credit Compensation.
An end to Arbitrary Adjustment & Reclassification.
An end to Oppressive Conditions of Confinement, including
Excessively Restrictive Management Systems, Overcrowding, and Abuse by
Guards & Administration.
An end to malicious social engineering practices that are designed
to cause friction, foment conflict, and incite violence amongst
incarcerated citizens.
An end to collective punishment.
Increased access to economically relevant vocational & technical
skills training, including that which is currently made available by the
DLLR. We also seek access to state sponsored college education.
Increased access to cognitive programs currently available at the
prison.
Higher quality food and more sizeable portions.
For the reasons mentioned herein, the Maryland Prison Labor
Organization is hereby established for the benefit of its members, and
for that of the entire incarcerated working class within the state of
Maryland.
I want to give our readers a brief status update. This is the first
issue in 5 months, and the one before that was about 7 months prior.
Unfortunately, we will be sticking to what we called “plan C” in the
last issue, which was relaunching Under Lock & Key(ULK) on
an irregular basis.
We have went ahead with the new newsprint format, which has reduced
our costs. With this new format, we launched the new logo that was to go
on the new newsletter. Thanks to the USW comrade who drafted, and redrew
the artwork for that. Otherwise, the contents of ULK should
remain about what you are used to.
Before I go on, I want to include one of the appreciative letters we
received from a newer subscriber:
“I want to sincerely thank you all for altering my outlook on the
world and on life in general. Not to mention politics. I don’t know how
to explain it, but just in the relatively short few months that I’ve
been seriously studying the various ULKs and related materials,
I can see and feel so many positive changes in myself, my outlook,
attitude, mindframe, actions, words, thoughts, etc.
“… For example, just navigating the daily struggle in here has become
much easier for me as far as interactions with the guards, etc. I just
feel like I have been equipped with a much more stable mindframe and a
more mature attitude. As I’m writing this I’m actually realizing that
this is probably my reactionary mentality being steadily stripped away
and replaced with knowledge and wisdom of what’s really going on.
“This has even had positive effects on my personal/family life as
well and my ability to express myself and communicate with individuals I
had a difficult time with before. I’m able to control my emotions more
and deal with sense and reason which has produced better results.”
It is letters like this that reinforce the importance of Under
Lock & Key and our determination to keep it going. But we can’t
do so without rallying more support.
Some of the things that go into this one project include: processing
incoming letters to update our mailing list, typing articles, scanning
and editing art, responding to articles, editing, formatting and
proofreading, layout of the newsletter, compiling and processing our
latest mailing list for the USPS, proof reading the laid out newsletter,
folding and packaging the newsletters, bringing them to the post office
for delivery to you, and paying for all that printing and postage. We
know our readers in prison can’t do most of these things. But by
promoting ULK and recruiting others around our work, you can
build the network of support we need.
And many of you can send donations. Thank you to all of you who have
sent in stamps in recent months despite the lack of ULKs. We
are still sending out lots of letters and literature and making good use
of your donations!
In addition to ULK, we are prioritizing responding to
letters, providing resource guides and political literature. We remain
focused on our serve the people Re-Lease on Life program, which has
gained some good experience and seen some setbacks in the last year. And
we are working to develop Anti-Imperialist Prisoner Support, so that we
can expand our work to what it used to be and beyond. Finally, we
continue to put time into engaging with the development of the Maoist
movement here in occupied Turtle Island so that all these programs can
feed into real revolutionary change in the future.
Our readership has always talked about fascism more than the
mainstream because they face some of the most fascistic aspects of
imperialism within U.$. borders. As the dialogue around fascism in
relation to the White House enterslj6 the mainstream, it becomes more
important for us to distinguish our line, and the potential strategies
that follow from that line.(1)
The first draft of an article on the self-determination
of the Lakota people referred repeatedly to the fascism that they
faced. The parallel is certainly justified. As we know Hitler was very
inspired by the Amerikan genocide and colonization of First Nations.
Yet, fascism arose hundreds of years after settlers first came to Turtle
Island. There are many similarities, but also differences, between Nazi
Germany and the early United $tates, and the United $tates today.(2)
Understanding what fascism is is important for fighting it.
Fascism as
Inter-Imperialist Conflict
“Marxist-Leninists eventually argued that fascism is qualitatively
more evil than ordinary imperialism. First, fascism occupied imperialist
countries and exterminated national self-determination in direct ways
that the other imperialists did not. Second, and less important, fascism
is the open dictatorship of the bourgeoisie instead of just the more
masked dictatorship of bourgeois democracy.” MC5, May 1993, “Historical
applications of Line, Strategy and Tactics: The United Front”, MIM
Theory 6: The Stalin Issue, p.76. ($5)
MC5 goes on to say that the principal contradiction during the period
of the rise of fascism was actually that between the socialist and the
imperialist camps. That the Nazis focused so much on the destruction of
the Soviet Union, undermining their own success, demonstrates the role
of fascism as a response to socialism.
Stalin’s strategy in this period was to divide the imperialist camp.
It’s hard to see how the socialist camp today could employ such a
strategy since we are not operating from the base of power that Stalin
was (the USSR actually had the military might to stop the Nazis). But in
his time, Stalin’s strategy proved correct.
A Global Threat or
Bourgeois Politics
Antifa and the unorganized rebellions against the police in cities
across the country have forced anti-fascism into the mainstream. Yet the
mainstream rhetoric has quickly transformed the “battle against fascism”
in the United $tates into a thinly veiled campaign for the Democratic
Party presidential election in November. The likes of Bob Avakian,
Angela Davis and Noam Chomsky have all called on people to vote for Joe
Biden, citing this battle.
Stopping fascism is a lower level goal than ending imperialism or
building socialism. There are times, like World War II, when stopping
fascism is the appropriate focus for communists. At that time fascism
was waging a military assault across Europe and threatening the first
dictatorship of the proletariat.
Presidential candidate Biden has already promised a significant
increase in military spending, and President Trump has increased
military spending during his term, despite his criticisms of the
self-interest of the military industrial complex. Both candidates are
clearly behind continued U.$. militarism to wage war against the
oppressed peoples of the world. Neither candidate has indicated a
rapacious military campaign to conquer and occupy other nations. Between
the two options offered by the U.$. imperialists, we do not yet see the
principal characteristic that led the communists of the COMINTERN to see
fascism as a greater evil than imperialism.
Those who are crying “fascism” in the U.$. today are arguing that
state repression internal to the United $tates is ramping up. So let’s
look at what MC5 called the “less important” distinguishing
characteristic of fascism.
The
Democratic Struggle Against Fascism in the Third World
“The imperialists export fascism to many Third World countries via
puppet governments. And imperialist countries can turn to fascism
themselves. But it is important to note that there is no third choice
for independent fascism in the world: they are either imperialist or
imperialist-puppets. Germany, Spain, Italy and Japan had all reached the
banking stage of capitalism and had a real basis for thinking they could
take over colonies from the British and French. … The vast majority of
the world’s fascist-ruled countries have been U.$. puppets.” – MIM
Congress, “Osama Bin Laden and the Concept of ‘Theocratic Fascism’”,
2004
Strategy varies from place to place. An example of this from the past
is when the Filipinos waged a campaign against the GATT trade agreement.
In the Philippines this was a righteous campaign against imperialist
control over their economy. However, in the United $tates the campaign
against GATT was one focused on protecting Amerikan jobs, which implies
fortifying imperialist borders against labor from other countries. So
you can see how the same campaign can have very different impacts in
different contexts. It is our responsibility to understand our own
context and organize accordingly.
In a previous
article on this same topic, we mentioned the anti-imperialist
rhetoric of the newly elected President Duterte in the Philippines.
After Duterte’s anti-United $tates rhetoric fizzled, the National
Democratic Front in the Philippines have begun campaigning against the
“fascist US-Duterte regime.” This framing is important. The fascism is
coming from the United $tates and being implemented by the puppet
Duterte. This allows for their propaganda to be consumed within the
United $tates without fueling U.$. militarism for an invasion of the
Philippines to rescue them from fascism.
This is in sharp contrast to the rhetoric around “islamo-fascism” in
Afghanistan following the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the
Pentagon. This framing was of course propagated by the Pentagon, but
also by many calling themselves “communists.” It fueled anti-Muslim
sentiments in support of U.$. militarism in Central Asia.
The framing of fascism in the form of puppet regimes is useful for
the national democratic movements in the Third World to unite all who
can be united. But these puppet regimes do not signify a shift in the
global balance of power that warrant a strategic re-orientation like the
rise of fascism within an imperialist country would.
Don’t Vote, Build Bases of
Power
Another important point to note is that there is an active People’s
War in the Philippines. The National Democratic Front is led by the
communist party. The united front to get Trump out of office is led by
the Democratic Party, in other words, the imperialists. The imperialists
are not facing the threat of a communist revolution in the United $tates
like they are in the Philippines that would warrant a shift to outright
bourgeois dictatorship.
The imperialists responded to the 9/11 attacks with a series of
changes in law, such as the Patriot Act, which legalized some of the
things Trump has been doing domestically. Initially, MIM was part of the
movement to oppose the Patriot Act. However, they decided to leave that
movement when it was clear it was dominated by libertarians. Other
“communists” tailed this movement with calls to “Drive out the Bush
regime” often referring to Bush as a fascist. These same “communists”
who were effectively campaigning for Obama’s election by offering no
other alternative to Bush, because they have no power, are now openly
endorsing Biden.
When the Soviet Union allied with the United $tates, and the Filipino
communists ally with the bourgeois forces, they do not put down their
guns, or give up their goals of building socialism. To be real players
in the anti-fascist struggle, we must first build power like the Soviet
Union did and the Filipinos are doing. Stalin did bite his tongue about
U.$. imperialism to defeat German fascism. To bite our tongue today
about Joe Biden’s militarism and targeting of oppressed nations with
mass incarceration is to abandon the oppressed nations of the world.
It is good to see those in the imperialist state defending bourgeois
democracy. That is their role. Our role is to build public opinion
against imperialism and build independent institutions of the oppressed.
As Trump attempts to frame Biden/Harris as the radical left, it is
important to demonstrate real revolutionary politics in this country.
And the target of the revolution is imperialism. Imperialism must be
overthrown before we can really begin the task of building a society
without oppression. To put this goal to the side to focus on getting
Trump out of office, especially at a time when more and more people are
looking for systemic change, is to stop representing the international
proletariat. In this era in the United $tates, anti-imperialism is the
radical position, while anti-fascism and anti-racism are the reformist
positions.
Notes: 1. order MIM Theory 5: Diet for a Small Red
Planet ($5) for an in-depth look at the relationship between line,
strategy and tactics 2. order our Fascism and Contemporary Economics
($3) for a deeper look at the history and economic of
fascism