Under Lock & Key

Being a revolutionary means having a political commitment and taking responsibility for that commitment. It means that we should be always working to realize our political aims, goals and objectives.

Even when a revolutionary comrade has not developed a high degree/level of revolutionary knowledge/science, his/her actions should reflect someone who is striving to implement a policy of self-respect, self-determination and self-defense. Your knowledge will grow and develop as you put theory into action. What is correct and incorrect will be revealed - through study and practice.

Here some things we should bear in mind:

1. Nobody was born a revolutionary. Revolutionaries are made.
   
2. Correct ideas grow and develop in unity and struggle with incorrect ones.
   
3. A revolutionary should be taken seriously by those they come in contact with.
   
4. A revolutionary should be patient and understanding with those who are new to revolutionary ideas, literature, struggle, etc.
   
5. A revolutionary should study revolutionary materials on a daily basis.
   
6. A revolutionary should do revolutionary work first and play games later.
   
7. A revolutionary puts the revolutionary movement as her/his priority over other things.
   
8. A revolutionary should do whatever they can to prolong their life of revolutionary struggle.
   
9. A revolutionary engages in principled debate on any issue, using science over idealism and emotions.
   
10. A revolutionary is not one who floods cells, burns mattresses or talks shit to pigs, these are reactionary actions.

    Revolutionary activity is potential “illegal” activity. Let’s get serious about building a movement to seize state power… or find something else to do…

Huey P. Newton, co-founder of the original Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, once taught that “the purpose of a vanguard group should be to raise the consciousness of the masses through
educational programs and certain physical activities the party will participate in.”

MIM(Prisons) is actively involved, along with several groups and leaders, in the building of a United Front among lumpen in the U$ and has asked the questions, “what makes up the basis for unity among the lumpen?” and “what is the basis for unity between the lumpen and the international proletariat?”

I believe that the basis of unity among prisoners and the lumpen in general is our common oppression. We are all catching hell from a common enemy, that we all come from oppressive conditions - that your community and mine, suffer from the same symptoms caused by U$ imperialism - poverty, despair, mis-education in inferior schools, addictions of various sorts, pigs killing us, etc. This is the premise that I work from in trying to unite, educate and organize with prisoners.

The unity between the lumpen and the international proletariat should be based upon the fact that we all suffer under conditions created by our principal enemy: U$ imperialism. U$ imperialism and the political economy of capitalism are at the root of all the social problems that U$ lumpen and the international proletariat suffer from.

We seek to unite with all poor and oppressed nations and the people who are willing to unite with us around the primary goal of the destruction of U$ imperialism: our principal enemy. It matters not if one is socialist or communist at this time.

The United Front has been seen throughout history to be effective strategically and tactically in revolutionary struggles. Membership in a United Front does not mean that a group loses its independence to pursue its political objectives. It means that we all agree that we should work together against our principal enemy and work with each other on projects which push development of the struggle ahead.

Our analysis should include each of these forces able to reach consensus on the above questions. We should check thoroughly each proposal and the efforts put forth to realize them by the respective forces, the extent to which resources are acquired and how allocated, the level of priority given by each force to the realization of the effort.

Without a United Front our enemies will be able to continue to defeat us and repress our organizing activities. United, our work becomes that much more effective. The more groups involved principally, the stronger our movement will become and the greater our efforts will be in combating national oppression and imperialism.

Let us push forward the struggle by pushing forward the development of the united front. Without struggle, there is no progress.

Censorship Campaign Update

In April 2010, we embarked upon a legal campaign to protest the Missouri DOC’s decision to place a blanket ban on all CDs and tapes which carry a parental advisory label. We suggested that prisoners send in a complaint to DOC and government officials, and other prisoners’ rights organizations.

On 29 June 2010 the ACLU of Kansas and Western Missouri responded to the letter I sent to them. In short order, they said they couldn’t represent “me” in the complaint set forth in Our complaint letter, although I stressed that this was an issue that affected the entire class of prisoners in this state.

On 13 July 2010, Natania Gazek, Special Litigation Section of the Civil Rights Division of the U.$. Justice Department responded to Our complaint and letter. Her response was that the U.$. Justice Department would not get involved in “individual” cases, but does have the authority to initiate civil action in the name of the Unite $tates. against state and local officials to remedy conditions of confinement which violate the constitution.

We shouldn’t be surprised by these responses. These officials represent the interests of the state, which is imperialist in word and deed. However, what surprised me was that I wrote to over 40 organizations and groups which have memberships in these prisons including but not limited to the NAACP, NOI, Missouri CURE, Human Rights Watch, Critical Resistance, rcp=U$A, ASPS, the Fortune Society and not one of these groups had enough respect for Our struggle to even respond to Our call for help.

From this you should take that it is exceedingly important that we support groups such as MIM(Prisons) and USW who have shown in their actions that they support our struggles. We must withdraw all moral and financial support of groups and leaders who don’t give a damn about our repression, yet want our membership dollars.

Legal Work

I have current federal litigation filed that alleges that the censorship policy is a violation of Our 1st and 14th Amendment rights. This case deals specifically with DOC officials’ censorship of issues of Under Lock & Key and other MIM publications.

What will strengthen this case and the new case that I’m preparing is if those of you in Missouri who have had issues of ULK and other literature from MIM Distributors censored would write out declarations or affidavits stating when and what was censored and send them to the MIM(Prisons)-led Prisoners’ Legal Clinic, who will send them to me. I will present this evidence to the Asst. Attorney General as proof that these illegal actions are happening in other prisons and it is not just me as an “individual” who is suffering.

In all, the lesson here is that we can’t expect “justice” from our enemies and that we must organize ourselves and build independent institutions that speak to our needs. Rest assured that our enemies know full well the social implications of their policies. A persyn can only proceed as far as their knowledge will carry them and they plan to keep prisoners ignorant, addicted and coming in and out of prison as a constant source of income.

Ups to all of those who took the time, energy and efforts to send in complaints, file grievances and educate fellow prisoners on these issues and others. If you have other ideas, suggestions or strategies please send them in. Keep your heads up, stay strong, unite and organize.

As revolutionaries who are conscious and active in the national liberation struggles of oppressed nations’ anti-imperialist movement in general and in the United $nakes in particular, there is a need to understand the motive forces controlling our lives and how these relate to oppression.

As materialists we believe that knowledge is key to understanding these forces. The masses read bourgeois newspapers and media and take up the political line of the imperialists without really consciously knowing. I’m speaking here of the politically unconscious. For example, after 9/11 there were many oppressed nations prisoners saying “we need to bomb those terrorists and kill them all, them dudes are crazy.”

Lenin, Stalin, Mao and Huey all taught us that we need to develop independent media institutions of the oppressed to build public opinion for revolution. It is with this thought in mind that I am proposing that all members and associates of the United Struggle from Within work to increase the subscriptions and readership of Our independent media outlet, Under Lock & Key. How do I suggest we do this? By (1) getting prisyners in your unit or prison to write in and request to be on the ULK mailing list, (2) making copies, if possible, and circulating them, and (3) having friends, family members, other groups, etc., send money in for subscriptions and check out MIM(Prisons)’s website. My persynal goal is to get 50 prisyners to write in and request a subscription over the next six months.

Most prisyners are poor and will readily write in for any type of reading material that they can get free. Our duty is to appeal to that particular material interest as a way to spread the word and share knowledge.

I believe that the more people become exposed to new ideas, programs, etc., the better chance we have of bringing them into the movement. After all, a lot of people simply don’t know. So they can’t be held accountable for their actions. By exposing people to the real world we take away their excuses and they have to make a conscious choice – to be on the side of the oppressed or the oppressor. Educate to liberate!

MIM(Prisons) responds: Our principal task in preparation for socialist revolution in the United $tates is to build public opinion and independent institutions of the oppressed to end imperialism. Under Lock & Key is an independent institution that builds public opinion, primarily among the imprisoned lumpen. USW provides more content for ULK than any other group, and we would encourage comrades to take up this call to begin a real campaign to expand distribution everywhere that USW is active.

We want to echo this comrade’s call for financial support as we just completed discussions of how to better ensure that our distribution methods are effective and resources are not wasted. MIM(Prisons) has no paid staff and we work with a very small budget with no funding from outside institutions. Therefore, donations sent go a long way.

While prisoners are often indigent, oppressed nations in the United $tates benefit materially due to imperialism (they get the crumbs from the king’s table), so we wouldn’t say that the only thing holding many people back from joining the anti-imperialist movement is their ignorance, as this comrade does. However, s/he is correct to say that exposing people to revolutionary ideas will enable and force them to consciously choose what side to be on. So push the revolutionary movement forward and help expand the distribution of Under Lock & Key!

July 8, 2010 marks an unprecedented day in united $nakes history. For the first time in its history, a U$ criminal court has found a police officer guilty of murdering a Black persyn (involuntary manslaughter was the official charge). A slap on the wrist!

On January 1, 2009, Bay Area Rapid Transit copy Johannes Mehserle shot and killed 22-year-old Oscar Grant while he was handcuffed behind his back in Oakland, CA. This case was witnessed by numerous people and caught on cellphone video footage.

What is not unprecedented or strange is the disproportionate numbers of Blacks and other oppressed nations’ citizens who have fallen victim to the blazing guns of killer-kkkops and how predominately white jury’s have found these cases to be “justifiable homicides.” Black life is cheap in white amerikkka!

Who’s the next victim?

Imam Morales, killed by racist pigs in New York, Imam Lugman and 7 year old Aiyana Jones murdered by FBI and Detroit pigs, and countless other victims. So many Black bodies gunned down that it’s useless to try to name them all. But ask yourselves, who’s going to be the next victim to fall before the trigger happy, state-backed assassins of poor and oppressed nations? Will it be you, me, the neighbor’s child, your son, daughter, niece, nephew or husband/wife?

The need for independent media

What I found to be more disturbing and disrespectful, other than the guy’s decision, was that on July 9, the morning after the verdict, the “Black” radio talk show programs of Steve Harvey and Tom Joyner, had more to say about the Lebron James decision to play basketball in Miami than the murder of Oscar Grant. This further magnifies the need for poor and oppressed nations to build independent media sources to educate and inform our people as to what is happening in our communities and what we must do to change the oppressive realities and conditions. Black life is cheap even to Tom Joyner and Steve Harvey.

What is to be done?

The root of the problem is not simply abusive, racist, killer-kkkops. The root of the problem is imperialism and this means that the people must organize themselves into a strong anti-imperialist force to bring down the system that allows these murderers to exist to kill, maim and go free.

Community control of police boards and having a say in which pigs are hired to oppress and fired after they murder one of us, is not even close to a solution. This only means that certain forces in our communities will be co-opted and sell-out our interests.

We must unite and organize and get behind a true revolutionary vanguard party that will express the will and represent the interest of the people. We must unite in every state, city, ghetto, barrio and reservation and build our own infrastructure. We must build an anti-imperialist United Front that will represent all oppressed nations and we must resist racist oppression and imperialist aggression.

As long as oppressed nations lack self-determination and the power to control our lives, there will be more Oscar Grants, Shawn Bells and Aiyana Jones!

The imperialist white-supremacist power structure must be brought down. The only question that must be answered is whether or not you will be a passive participant in the repression and murder of the poor and oppressed? No more Oscar Grants! No more Aiyana Jones!

Unite and Organize now!

MIM(Prisons) adds: Check out the MIM(Prisons) analysis of the Oscar Grant case for more on this example of the Amerikan injustice system.

When revolutionaries begin discussing and conducting a concrete analysis of the particularities of national oppression and how imprisonment is used as a tool of imperialist social control, we invariably must engage in discussing and analyzing how the so-called sciences of psychiatry and psychology are used to further legitimize and give moral reasoning to the national oppression and racist extermination of oppressed nations by imperialist nations.

The Maoist Internationalist Movement wrote about and critiqued in great detail psychiatry and psychology as pseudo-sciences. For those who wish to do an exhaustive study on the subject, I highly recommend that material.(1)

Forced Psychotropic Medications

The Missouri Department of Corrections has a policy entitled, “Forced and Involuntary Psychotropic Medications,” that is reminiscent of Nazi Germany. This policy gives administrators the authority to force psychotropic medications on a prisoner who is a danger to her/himself and/or others, or is gravely disabled, among other things. This same policy further states that a prisoner can refuse this medication and psychotropic medication should never be used strictly for behavioral control in the absence of a mental disorder. Yet, all of this is done without the prisoner having legal counsel or representation at a medical-psychiatric hearing with staff.

Ultimately, the question is, who is it that determines what a mental disorder is? How do they determine who, how or when someone is a danger to themselves or another? I answer, all of them are determined by the imperialists!

Racist Pseudo-Science

From our study of history, we can see that the oppressors have always used pseudo-science to justify the oppression and genocide of oppressed nations. Whether the “savage” First Nations, “heathen” Africans or “feeble-minded” Jews, psychiatry/psychology were the social sciences that the oppressor nations used to legitimize the oppression and exploitation of others who were considered a different “race.”

While much of the language has changed, the essence remains the same – white supremacy uses psychiatry/psychology to further their aims of imposing their will upon others. Those who oppose them are often labeled “extremists,” “terrorists,” “radicals,” “criminals,” “crazy,” etc.

Take, for example, the theory of eugenics. Eugenics was a term coined by Charles Darwin’s cousin Francis Galton in 1883, which referred to the attempt to “improve the human species by affording the more suitable races or strains of blood a better chance of prevailing speedily over the less suitable.”(2)

This false scientific theory postulated that there were genes within oppressed nations that were leading to the deterioration of the humyn race and that oppressed nations were predisposed to committing crimes. The resolution to this contradiction was to isolate these people in institutions (i.e. mental hospitals, prisons, reservations, ghettos, barrios, slums, etc.) or sterilize them. The state of California was one of twenty-nine Amerikan states to pass laws allowing sterilization, and conducted more forced sterilizations than anywhere in the United $tates. These sterilizations were justified as efforts to prevent the passing on of mental illness and criminality. Today, criminality is still treated as an inborn psychological trait even though links to race are usually only implied, not explicitly stated.

Eugenics research was funded by the Carnegie Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation. The Rockefeller Foundation helped to finance German researchers at an extremely high level all the way up to 1939 before the onset of World War II, and was aware that German scientists were gassing people in mental institutions. The Rockefellers and Prescott Sheldon Bush, George W. Bush’s grandfather, were partners with I.G. Farben, the German chemical giant that built the death camp at Auschwitz. (see resources at end of article)

Eugenics was approved by the National Academy of Sciences, Amerikan Medical Association and National Research Council, and of course many Amerikan political and business leaders of the time. But after Hitler killed millions of Jews, nobody wanted to be associated with that horror, so they changed the words. In the 1990s, eugenics became the Bell Curve Theory.(2)

Pseudo-Scientific Credence

Pseudo-scientific credence means providing credibility to an issue based on flawed science. White supremacy is based on a false contention derived from a pseudo-scientific application of biology. Race-based theories were also given credence by flawed science in the form of psychology. For example, Samuel A. Cartwright, a prominent Louisiana Physician claimed that he discovered two mental “diseases” (his word) in 1851 that were peculiar to the “negro” race: 1) drapetomania and 2) dysaethesia aethiopica. In brief, drapetomania was a disease that caused Blacks to have an uncontrolled urge to run away from their masters - the treatment for this “illness” was “whipping the devil out of them.” We all know that a captured fugitive slave was often beaten with a whip by his/her slave master, a clear example of how this pseudo-science gave credence to the slave master’s brutality. Dysaethesia aethiopica supposedly affected both mind and body, the diagnosable signs included disobedience, answering disrespectfully and refusing to work. The “cure” was to put the persyn to some kind of hard labor. In 1797, the “father” of Amerikkkan psychiatry, Dr. Benjamin Rush, whose face still adorns the seal of the Amerikkkan Psychiatric Association, declared that the color of Blacks was caused by a rare congenital disease caused “negritude,” which derived from leprosy. The “cure” was when the skin turned white.(4,5)

Independence from Oppressive “Science”

The essence of this lesson is that until oppressed nations achieve self-determination, control of their own institutions that speak to their needs, and the requisite power to guide the destiny of their nation, the imperialists will continue to use pseudo-sciences such as psychiatry and psychology to further their aims to dominate, imprison and exploit poor and oppressed nations – and if push comes to shove, destroy them!

Notes:
(1) Psychology & Imperialism. MIM Theory 9, 1995. MIM Distributors.
(2) MC12. “Bell Curve Lessons: IQ Against the Oppressed,” MIM Theory 9.
(3) Lothrop Stoddard. “The Rising Tide of Color Against White World Supremacy”
(4) Abdul D. Shakur, Abasi Ganda, Kamau M. Askari. “The Bell Curve Conspiracy: A Recipe for New Afrikan Genocide” Black Panther Press, 2003.
(5) “Creating Racism: Psychiatry’s Betrayal in the Guise of Help.” The Citizenship Commission on Human Rights, 1995.

Other Resources:

Edwin Black. War Against the Weak: Eugenics and America’s Campaign to Create a Master Race. Four Walls: New York, 2003.
Wendy Kline. Building a Better Race: Gender, Sexuality and Eugenics from the turn of the Century to the Baby Boom. University of California Press: Berkeley, 2001.
Stevan Kuhl. The Nazi Connection: Eugenics, American Racism and German National Socialism. Oxford University Press: New York, 1994.
James Scott. Seeing Like a State: How certain schemes to improve the human condition have failed. Houghton Mifflin: New York, 2006.
Cory Panshin. The Secret History of the 20th Century. 2006.
Tom Big Warrior. They Only Call it Fascism When it’s Being Done to White People. Rising Sun Press: 2006.

As revolutionaries we recognize the important role of understanding history and culture and how a correct analysis of them aids the people in breaking the chains of national oppression.

If imperialism is the control and exploitation of poor nations by rich nations then cultural imperialism is the domination and negation of a poor nation’s culture and history. When an oppressed nation practices the culture and participates in the celebrating of the national holidays of their oppressors, they are, in fact, celebrating their own oppression, cultural domination and genocide.

In the United $nakes, oppressed nations tend to celebrate the oppressive white nation’s holidays and culture with more enthusiasm than the white folks. Back during chattel slavery this could have been understandable, because it meant we didn’t have to work in the white man’s fields for free. But today, the reality is different.

The 4th of July (Amerikkka’s day of independence) is upon us again and New Afrikan (Black) people and other internal oppressed nations have absolutely nothing to celebrate. It is a downright disrespect to our people’s historic struggle to be out celebrating, partying and bullshitting, when we should be in the streets agitating, educating and organizing the masses for social revolutionary struggle for national independence. When we gain our independence, then let’s celebrate.

The 4th of July is a Euro-Amerikan cultural and political holiday in recognition of their successful revolutionary struggle to break the chains of English colonial bondage. On July 4, 1776, Black, Latino and First Nation people were catching hell! We were enslaved, being exploited and murdered, so what the hell is our cause for celebration? Do we suffer from some sort of cultural and historical amnesia?

Check out what Frederick Douglas had to say to the white folk who asked him to speak at a fourth of July celebration:

“Fellow citizens, pardon me and allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here today? Perhaps you mean to mock me. For what have I to do with your celebration? What to the American slave is your fourth of July? I answer, a day that reveals to him more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is a constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham, your boasted liberty an unholy license, your national greatness, a swelling vanity, your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless, your denunciation of tyrants, brass-fronted impudence. Your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery, your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgiving, with all your religious parades and solemnity, hypocrisy - a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages.”

What you say and do is a reflection of who you are. The only true culture of the oppressed is a revolutionary culture that is built throughout the struggle for national liberation. The people’s culture is not some far off distant time that has long ago burned out in some distant land. It is alive and developing out of the people’s struggle against oppression and exploitation.

In order for us to succeed in any of our objectives and goals, we must have organization. This is an incontrovertible fact. We cannot even begin to visualize the thought of abolishing this injustice system (as it now exists), until we raise the level of consciousness of the masses of the people and obtain power. In order to obtain the power to destroy national oppression, exploitation and capitalist-imperialism, we must acquire the use of the weapon/instrument of organization.

“Such organization demands that we be conscious, skilled, disciplined and united in thought and action. It demands fundamental change in our thought and in our practice, it demands acquisition of a sense of confidence, a belief in our ability to struggle to win, to break the chains (physical and mental) and so on to build and control a new way of life for ourselves.

“Just as organization is the weapon/instrument that we must have in the struggle to obtain the power we need to effect revolutionary change, correct ideology/philosophy, theory and practice are required weapons/instruments we need in order to ensure effective organization. . .

“The chains that bind us are mental as well as physical. We cannot organize sleeping people around specific goals until awareness and understanding of the need to fight has been achieved, until the will to fight has been inspired, until the belief that we can win has been acquired.

“These mental/psychological chains obscure, mask and misdescribe the way the real world works. Incorrect philosophical approaches prevent awareness and understanding of real social, political and economic relations. Backward philosophy stifles the growth and development of genuine revolutionary consciousness, causes repeated confusion and frustration, apathy and disillusionment, conceals the need that we have to fight, dulls the will to fight, erodes our confidence and impedes effective organization for revolutionary national liberation struggle.”(1)

We are oppressed together, let’s stand up together

If we don’t take the initiative to fight and struggle, how do we realistically expect people on the outside to go all out for us? There is a real war being waged against us and thus far our response to it collectively has been pitiful. In his seminal work The Wretched of the Earth, Fanon made mention of the natives’ fear of the oppressor and that he strikes out against a fellow native instead of his real enemy, out of fear. Similarly, we are afraid of the pigs for fear of losing whatever, but will hurt each other at the drop of a hat.

So not only do we have to deal with the superiority complex of the racist correctional officer, we have to work with and struggle against the inferiority complex of the prisoners.

There are over 2.3 million men and wimmin in U.$. prisons and jails. Of those, 35,000 are in the state of misery (Missouri). What’s really fucked up is that I know thousands of these men and wimmin and can’t name 50 who are committed to the anti-imperialist struggle thru their actions and not just words.

However, one thing that you will see quickly are the great divisions amongst us on all levels and schools of thought - NOI, orthodox muslim, moors, kansas city, st. louis, northside, eastside, southside, westside, blood, crip, disciple, vicelord, bullshit, meaningless divisions. We are however, united in our pain, misery, suffering and oppression. We all get maced, denied parole, eat the same shitty food, go to the hole for the same bullshit violations and have to deal with the same overpaid, barely passed the GED-ass pigs!

For many years now, I’ve been labeled an “agitator” and “gang-leader” by the prisonkrats and have suffered much. But what they don’t know is how many stabbings my comrades and I have stopped from occurring, how many staff assaults we’ve curtailed, and we’re not looking for pats on the back.

It is said that if you are doing nothing but sitting on your ass, then you really have no right to complain about your oppression. Missouri and all prisoners stand up. You ain’t gotta stand tall, but at least stand up! Unite and organize!!

Is violence correct?

During the course of my kkkaptivity I have experienced first-hand and witnessed many incidents of physical and psychological torture of many prisoners. I have seen with my own two eyes a couple of prisoners savagely murdered by sadistic corrections staff. I’ve heard of cases that make the abuses at Abu Ghraib child’s play. Imagine being in a shower and having corrections staff throwing oranges at you until your brown body is battered and bruised. Saw it with my own eyes!

Conversely, from subscribing to and reading many of the prisoner newsletters that are in circulation, it has become patently clear that the physical and psychological terror and abuse in U.$. prisons is a part of the standard operating procedure for the imperialists and their repressive apparatus. They are not merely “isolated” incidents of abuse of power. The question is, how do we combat effectively this problem without exacerbating an already explosive, deadly situation and environment?

We do not, nor do the various prisoners’ rights organizations, such as MIM(Prisons), promote the use of violence against corrections staff as the proper response to their inhumane treatment of us. Of course, we also understand the principle of self-defense. And it is a historical fact that violence has been necessary to end violence.

In the environment of the correctional facility, when a prisoner or group of prisoners, move with violence in response to ill treatment and abusive conditions, the prison administrators and politicians blame the victim (prisoners) and use whatever actions taken by us to further legitimize their repression, add more abusive laws to the books and to give these righteous souljaz additional time. We can’t win this way no matter how righteous the act is when a no-good pig falls on something sharp. Imperialism is the enemy.(2)

Respect your supporters

While trying to build a support group and a united front against imperialism from behind electrified fences and stone walls, I have personally encountered a situation that must be seriously addressed amongst U.$. prisoners. Some years ago, I met a beautiful comrade and righteous sista in St. Louis who had just started a prisoners’ rights magazine. Her husband was a political prisoner in Michigan so she understood our struggle well. This sista would respond to all letters sent to her, but all of a sudden brothaz lost discipline and started writing her pornographic (freak) letters - that shit wasn’t cool. As a result of this, among other things, the sista directed that brothaz write to her husband (which is against some states’ mail policies). In the end, the brothaz ran a righteous project off with some bullshit!

I hope that this is not a problem we have with a lot of you souljaz. Of course, we all want to have someone to share our most intimate thoughts with, but this was not the time nor place. In this struggle we have to be conscious as well as disciplined and show respect to those who support us, because they are few and far between. Our resources are few as individuals, but our numbers are great and we can contribute much to support those who support us. Unite and organize!

notes:
(1) “On Agitation, Education and Organization,” Atiba Shanna, new African POW Journal, Book One, Spear and Shield publications
(2) To read more about peace in prison, get ULK issue 7

In the March 2009 Peace issue of ULK, I submitted an article entitled “More Police Not the Answer.” Since the writing of that piece, pig chief Joe Mowka has been forced into retirement after an investigative report surfaced that his estranged daughter (who has a history of drug abuse) had been using vehicles confiscated by the St. Louis City Police and held at a towing company with a lucrative contract by the City Police. But that’s just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

Since December 2008, there have been 13 St. Louis City Police officers charged in state and federal indictments. New pig chief Don Isam, the Black face in a high place, says that he is committed to “rooting out those who violate the laws they are sworn to uphold.” Yeah right, we’ve heard it all before… Brotha!

The first week of October 2009, one pig was fired and another suspended after they filed criminal charges against a man for allegedly trying to run over one of them with his car. But due to the diligence of the man’s girlfriend, a videotape surfaced which showed that the officers had in fact lied. All the charges were subsequently dropped.

Two other pigs were caught lying in search warrants. Pigs Vincent T. Carr, and Bobby Lee Courrett, were recently given slaps on the wrists, after being indicted in December 2008, along with pig Leo Liston (indicted in April 2009). They were indicted for stealing drug-linked money and planting illegal evidence on an innocent man and lying to cover up their wrong doing. As a result, over 1,000 cases in which these pigs were involved have to be reviewed.

Some other cases involve pigs lying in court proceedings, doing computer database checks for buddies and theft of U.$. government property. Pigs Ronald H. Jackson and Christian A. Brezill were caught in a scheme in which they would take stolen goods from thieves and keep them for themselves, sell off what they didn’t want and break bread with the rat who set up the other crooks. The indictment involves them taking what they thought was the thieves property, which actually belonged to the FBI.

But these things are not “new” to anyone, nor are they “isolated” incidents. Corruption is part of the pig culture. I can remember back to the late 1980s when George Peach was the city’s head prosecutor, sending thousands of men and wimmin to prison, only to be caught in a federal prostitution sting.

Pig abuse and pig corruption are a part of the capitalist-imperialist system. So while some “citizens” cry for more pigs to be added to the city’s payroll, we say that the imperialist system is the root of all of these problems and that the entire system must go and not just a few greedy, fucked-up pigs!

MIM(Prisons) Adds: We’d like to emphasize the argument that this comrade makes against the “bad apples” theory, which comes from the false bourgeois psychological idea of persynalities and persynality traits. The idea of persynalities serves the bourgeoisie by focusing the masses on getting rid of the few people who are inherently “bad,” instead of analyzing society and how it feeds into some people having antisocial behavior. “If we just lock up so-and-so the rapist, and so-and-so the thief, and fire so-and-so the racist pig, then society will be a better place.” This incorrect logic is used for cleaning up the pig herd as well as locking up oppressed nations. In reality, people are a reflection of the society that they live in. If you live in an oppressive society where we have unequal power, and we’re taught to behave in antisocial ways, then it’s necessarily true that some people will abuse that power, and some will have antisocial behavior.

Not only is corruption a part of the pig culture, like this comrade says, but it’s their job to do fucked up things, that’s what they get paid to do. It’s their job to kill people, exploit people, rape people, and get away with it. Pigs of all kinds are specifically hired and promoted based on their loyalty to the amerikan nation. It’s like working at a burger joint in this society. If you don’t flip the burgers and serve them to the customers, then you aren’t enabling the restaurant to work how it needs to in order to be a restaurant. Similarly, as a pig, if you’re not locking up thousands of people, or planting drugs on them, or stopping them from organizing for liberation, then you’re not enabling society to function properly. The only way to truly get rid of the “bad apples” and corruption is to address these problems on a societal level.

Under the United States Constitution, in particular the First Amendment, is Our fundamental right of freedom of speech, expression, association and religion. This means that people have the right to freely express themselves socially, politically or religiously no matter how radical or backwards the ideas may seem. Everyone has the right to believe what they choose and to freely express those views. At lease that is what the law says.

However, prison administrators across the country have continuously and deliberately violated prisoner’s rights based upon the false assumptions that the social, historical and political material that they are receiving is somehow a threat to the prison safety and security.

What this amounts to in reality is the prisonkrats suppressing Our right to associate with, receive mail from, correspond with, possess the literature of, or be part of any group or organization that is political in nature, and especially those groups or organizations which are critical of the prison industrial complex. The last thing the prisonkrats want to see is a bunch of prisoners who are socially and politically conscious and active. They want Us to stay ignorant and in the dark, as We are their job security.

Everyone who is currently incarcerated must learn not only mailroom policy and procedure, but what federal case law supports and protects Our rights. If you aren’t doing anything to challenge the repressive/oppressive conditions, then you really have no right to complain. I am encouraging all of you whose rights have been violated to appeal those decisions through the grievance process and to exhaust all of your administrative remedies. Once this is done, you should prepare and file suit under 42 USCA 1983, which is the federal civil rights lawsuit and the proper legal avenue to challenge the system’s censorship of your mail.

For those of you in Missouri, I am currently preparing a federal complaint and once filed, you may be able to become a part of this suit if it is “certified” as a class action, meaning that the censorship policy is violating our rights as a class.

I am asking all of you on the outside who support Our right to receive literature and information to write letters to the Director of the Department of Corrections. and the warden here and let them know that you are aware of their illegal activity of violating Our rights and that you support Our right to receive information, correspond with and be members of outside social and political organizations.

For those who are not too abreast of the law, here are some cases that the courts rely on regarding censorship. These are your weapons, use them well.

Turner v. Safely 482 U.S.78. 107 S.Ct 2254
Proconier v. Martinez 416 U.S.396. 94 S.Ct 1800
Thornburgh v. Abbott 490 U.S. 4o1
Johnson v. Raemisch 557 F.Supp 2d 964
Jacklovich v. Simmons 392 F.3d 42o

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. Thank you for your support. You can also contact me through MIM for more information. Send letters of support/protest to:

Larry Crawford, Director
Missouri Dept. of Corrections
PO Box 236
Jefferson City, MO 65102
(573) 526-6607

Troy Steele, Warden
Southeast Correctional Center
300 E. Pedro Simmons Dr.
Charleston, MO 63834
(573) 683-4409