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.
This month the Brown Berets - Prison Chapter (BB-PC) honors Mary Crow
Dog, born Mary Blue Bird. She was a resident of a town called Saint
Francis on the reservation of Rosebud during 1973 at the siege of
Wounded Knee.
In 1971 Mary joined the American Indian Movement (AIM). During the siege
at Wounded Knee Mary was tasked with organizing the women to do the
cooking, cleaning and communications. She organized food running and
getting in and out of Wounded Knee to get much-needed supplies. The
siege lasted 73 days, with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms
(ATF) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) using armored personnel
carriers and Huey helicopters. Mary helped keep morale up among everyone
at the camp. Her bravery and courage is why my family in Pine Ridge and
Rosebud have the freedoms we do today.(1)
MIM(Prisons) responds: The BB-PC sent us these words on Mary Crow
Dog, along with some notes on the
documentary
on the Black Panthers that we reviewed in
ULK 49. We
thought it appropriate to print something on the AIM in this issue, as
they are very relevant to understanding the conditions in the United
$tates during the time of the Black Panther Party. While the BPP can
brag of having most of the FBI actions of the time targeting them, this
is probably due mostly to the size of the New Afrikan nation and their
mass base, compared to the First Nations who have been decimated by
genocide. And while Panthers engaged in long shoot outs with police,
nothing compared to the U.S. Army invasion of Wounded Knee:
“In the first instance since the Civil War that the U.S. Army had been
dispatched in a domestic operation, the Pentagon invaded Wounded Knee
with 17 armored personnel carriers, 130,000 rounds of M-16 ammunition,
41,000 rounds of M-1 ammunition, 24,000 flares, 12 M-79 grenade
launchers, 600 cases of C-S gas, 100 rounds of M-40 explosives,
helicopters, Phantom jets, and personnel…”(2)
Churchill and Vander Wall document the details of the intensive war the
FBI led against AIM. They write about the pursuit of AIM founder Dennis
Banks as having “garnered the dubious distinction of becoming the most
sustained attempt at a federal prosecution in the history of American
jurisprudence.”(3) While on the run from the state in 1976, Banks is
reported to have been hidden by Chican@ leader Corky Gonzalez, and
members of the Crusade for Justice working with local AIM members. Later
that year, Corky Gonzalez was falsely accused by the FBI of possessing
“a rocket launcher, rockets, M-16 automatic rifles, and hand grenades,”
intended to use in combination with AIM and others to kill police.(4)
Such rumors were part of the FBI’s public relations war against
liberation movements, attempting to distract from the fact that the U.$.
government is the real perpetrator of violence.
The American Indian Movement was formed in 1968, in a rising movement
for national liberation among First Nations that paralleled that in New
Afrika. Forming two years after the Black Panther Party, like many, they
were inspired by and modeled themselves after the BPP, though not taking
up the explicit Maoism of the BPP or the Young Lords Party. Like the
Panthers, AIM saw chapters pop up across the country soon after its
founding. And like the Panthers, AIM promoted armed self-defense of its
people and territory.
It is worth noting the different conditions faced by First Nations
compared to other internal semi-colonies. The threat of annihilation,
and the clear recognition of territory rights, lead to a more advanced
national consciousness and more advanced conditions for national
struggle. While we take lessons from the BPP’s ultra-left tendency to
pick up the gun too soon, the conditions of the time – from the First
Nation reservations in the United $tates to Vietnam to China – makes
their decision much more understandable than it would be today. Even
today, we recognize the objective conditions among First Nations overall
to be more advanced and armed struggle to be a correct path for them
before it would be in other parts of the United $tates.
On 20 February 2016, one day before we would mourn the assassination of
Brother Malcolm some fifty-one years ago, Stillwater Penitentiary, in
honor of Black History Month, welcomed three of Minnesota’s most
prominent African American leaders. Bobby Champion Keith Ellison and
Spike Moss took valuable time out of their busy schedules and spoke on
the topic of how they became who they are today. An appropriate topic
considering the month, and the current state of affairs Black men find
themselves in today.
I think before I provide my opinion of each speech from the men of
honor, I should include the fact per our overseers, the benevolent
Department of Corrections, we were shown Twelve Years a Slave,
and also Django. Of course I couldn’t watch Django, but
Twelve Years a Slave, I watched. After the movie I wondered if
the kernel of truth in the movie was supposed to be: all white men
aren’t liars, or just wait on the white man because he’s coming to save
you. I think the hardest pill to swallow was watching a movie from
within a failed system, and being subliminally told that a slave’s
belief in a system that makes the slave a slave will save him.
Boby Champion, a Minnesota Democratic State Senator and fabulous orator,
spoke about the obstacles he faced in graduating from Macalester
College. Senator Champion’s speech took us on a journey of perseverance
and fatherhood. He based his success on staying out of trouble, and
singing gospel in his group he established. It was Senator Champion’s
belief that serving the community completed the healing circle. I
thought that was noble, and believed he was sincere in his belief that
he served his community through assistance in our incarceration. Yet, I
felt as I sat there he didn’t talk about criminal justice, and avoided
what I had on my mind, the death of unarmed Black men.
Next to hit the floor was the University of Minnesota graduate, Keith
Ellison, Representative of the Fifth Congressional District of Minnesota
in the U.S. House of Representatives, fresh off his endorsement of
Senator Bernie Sanders. U.S. House Rep. Ellison, with little talk of his
life, stayed on topic with a Zinn-esque perspective on Black History. I
can only speculate on the reason he didn’t talk about his life. Perhaps
if he had spoken on his profession as a defense attorney, in turn the
defense and assistance in lengthy prison sentences for those in the
gymnasium would have become the topic of conversation. Although House
Rep. Ellison was not as energetic as Minnesota Senator Champion, his
topic fit with the theme; however, I still wanted someone to speak about
current relevant issues.
Finally, Spike Moss took the stage and he didn’t disappoint. Within his
Civil Rights history lesson he baptized the crowd in cultural
appreciation, and pointed to the lack of cultural markers as one cause
for black men losing their minds. At some point his message shifted form
uplifting to victim-blaming Black Lives Matter, and African men for
being complicit in the death of the black community.
I sat in my chair and tried to figure out where Moss had gone wrong. How
did an event about the ascension of Black men, successful men, to
relative success, turn into a selective history lesson on the Black
community destruction being the sole responsibility of those who have
destroyed? The connection between drugs and guns is forgotten. I didn’t
understand. It’s true that Black men sold drugs, shot guns and murdered
innocent people in the Black community. This is equivalent to white
folks paying Black mercenaries to destroy the community in which Black
mercenaries live; when the Panthers were imprisoned and murdered, the
drug dealer was given the community under police protection. If Spike
Moss is willing to accept the fact drugs were placed in our community,
then why is he not willing to accept that guns were too?
Black people don’t know a Black drug dealer who own cargo ships, and
Black people don’t know Black gunsmiths or a Black gun store owner.
Moreover it’s through the lens of these facts a capacity to destroy a
city is severely minimized. The Uzi machine gun comes from Israel, yet
in the 1990s it was the weapon of choice. How does it get to Los
Angeles? The FBI and CIA are involved.
In defense of Spike Moss, because most, if not all of those persons in
prison think he is a snitch for actively turning dealers and gang
members in. It is only prison gossip and I have not verified it for the
record, but in defense, not excuse of his “Negro of two minds position,”
I believe he’s scared of the white man, and the unconscious mercenary
Negro. I think his fear is justified. I am in prison with them, and from
far off they resemble that thug that Jesse Jackson said “he was scared
might run up behind him.” But what must be understood, even a
domesticated dog will bite his owner in the right conditions. Freud once
said: “That which you fear, and are afraid of is that what you truly
desire.” In the case of Spike Moss, his double conscious mind actually
inversed and he hates the thing he helped create; the incarcerated
youth.
I am neither for Black Lives Matter, nor am I for Mr. Spike Moss, but
believe they both represent positive activism, and have the betterment
of Black people in mind, Therefore, I say “seize the time.”
After the show I stopped House Rep. Keith Ellison and asked some of
those relevant questions I thought the voiceless had a right to ask:
“Why did Hennipin County District Attorney Mike Freeman only charge
the white boy who shot at the protesters with a single offense that at
the end of the day will get dropped down to a misdemeanor offense?
Because if that was some brothers, who done the same crime they’d be
charged with a drive-by shooting, and reckless firing of a firearm in
public place. They’d be charged not only with the victims that were
shot, but with every potential victim, and every person in the area
would have aiding and abetting charge. I know people right now in the
gymnasium that Freeman charged and got a conviction with suspect
evidence, and in the white boy’s case Freeman gots the gun, witnesses,
and him on Youtube.”
I also told him: “It seems to me and a few of the brothers here that
ever since Blacks started migrating from the south to northern cities,
whites have saw fit to enact legislation, specifically to target our
behavior and gave more time.”
After listening to three of the most prominent African American men in
Minnesota, it was hard not to feel like I was Platt Epps in Twelve
Years a Slave. With a voiceover Malcolm X narrates from a speech he
performed some fifty-one years prior, called “Message to the
Grassroots.” As my voice, Malcolm attempts to argue that African
American men should not be dependent on the white man:
“And if someone comes to you right now and says, ‘Let’s separate,’ you
say the same thing that the house Negro said on the plantation. ‘What
you mean, separate? From America? This good white man? Where you going
to get a better job than you get here?’ I mean, this is what you say. ‘I
ain’t left nothing in Africa,’ that’s what you say. Why, you left your
mind in Africa.” (Malcolm X’s speech “Message to the Grassroots,”
December 1963)
The recurrence of police brutality and racial prejudice against U.$.
oppressed nation groups that has captured widespread attention has also
heightened the national question. More and more, oppressed nation
communities and groups are expressing their discontent with a system of
oppression that dehumanizes and marginalizes them. Mass protests have
taken place, unrest has gripped cities, and organized movements have
arisen all in direct response to these injustices. In other words, the
demand for change by U.$. oppressed nations is beginning to define the
national question.
These events signal a realization among U.$. oppressed nations that the
prevailing system does not represent their interests, and that in fact,
it functions at a disadvantage to them. While socioeconomic indicators
reveal inequalities in communities of oppressed nations, they cannot
communicate the dimensions of humyn misery and suffering that result
from institutionalized racism and discrimination. Just as class
consciousness begins to take root and grow within exploited workers as
they question and share their experiences with each other, resulting in
organizations and movements expressly designed to overcome their plight,
so too does national consciousness follow this process as oppressed
nations deal with the reality of national oppression.
The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement is indicative of this process. It
is not the recent sanctioned murders of oppressed nation youth alone
that is responsible for this renewed activism, but the accumulation of
years of national oppression. The quantitative development of the
national question as it relates to U.$. imperialist society has reached
a critical point. Either U.$. internal semi-colonies and oppressed
nations are going to vie for liberation, or seek the path of reform and
further integration. Thus, the question becomes how are we, as Maoists,
going to nurture this emerging seed of awareness with revolutionary
nationalism.
Ultimately national oppression informs the consciousness of oppressed
nations within the unique conditions of U.$. imperialist society and
there are implications from the BLM movement that are relevant to the
larger national liberation movement. It is important to note that the
BLM movement is not a revolutionary organization. Yet, BLM is
instructive to our cause because it demonstrates the potential among
U.$. internal semi-colonies and oppressed nations to be organized around
issues of national oppression.
National Oppression and a Nation’s Right to Self-Determination
For U.$. internal semi-colonies and oppressed nations the national
question should be about realizing their right to self-determination.
Oppressed nations are subject to semi-colonialism and thus have no
control or power over their destiny. Because white supremacy dominates
every aspect of the oppressed nation, their material existence merely
functions as an afterthought to the white power structure.
Moreover, the white-setter nation-state has created mechanisms of social
control to maintain dominance over oppressed nations. Mass
incarceration, family and community dysfunction, the culture of
stereotypes and stigmas, etc. are just a few means used to keep
oppressed nations in check. To elaborate more on this point, the
systematic restriction of access to meaningful education undermines
access to meaningful job opportunities. No jobs means poverty and the
social ills that accompanies it. In addition, institutionalized racism
and discrimination inform attitudes and behavior that further creates a
culture of inequality within communities of oppressed nations. As a
result, some members of oppressed nations are compelled to pursue
criminal lifestyles, opening themselves up to the repressive criminal
injustice system.
While the above scenario is not representative of the entire oppressed
nation it does speak to the need for national liberation and the
exercise of a nation’s right to self-determination. Granted, U.$.
internal semi-colonies and oppressed nations enjoy living standards and
privileges that their Third World counterparts would die for.
Nevertheless, the reality of national oppression is no less detrimental
to the U.$. oppressed nation. The hurt and pain associated with
injustices of semi-colonialism is no less real.
These social experiences of national oppression take a mental toll on
oppressed nations. Every day and every instance of national oppression
that members of oppressed nations go through makes an impression upon
their consciousness. Eventually, they begin to connect the dots and
recognize the injustice of their situation in U.$. society.
What is National Consciousness?
Oppressed nations within U.$. borders develop an awareness due to
enduring national oppression. This awareness is not revolutionary nor is
it substantive. To be clear, any material situation that humyns inhabit
conditions a corresponding awareness that reflects their living state.
Marx and Engels developed the theory of materialist dialectics, which
dictates that consciousness is a product of matter, the exterior world.
The prison-house that is U.$. imperialist society is the physical world
and the social, political, and economic relations and interactions that
comprise it involve actual activity that is outside of our minds.
In this sense, the oppressed nations are subject to this dialectical
process as these relations and interactions condition their
consciousness. The activity of daily life within U.$. imperialist
society makes an impression upon mental capacity. And as shown above,
national oppression is a fundamental part of the daily life of these
oppressed nations.
Furthermore, national consciousness is similar to class consciousness in
that during the grind of daily life people exchange and engage ideas
about their material situation, their living conditions. They begin to
seek ways to resolve the issues that they face. Intellectuals gather to
discuss, theorize, and come up with solutions to common problems. More
importantly, institutions and organizations are founded to help push
their agendas. All of these actions take place because somewhere down
the line people got together after recognizing a problem.
Thus, when Marxists of old talked about building and deepening class
consciousness among exploited workers, they were referring to a process
in which people began to realize their predicament, but in a
revolutionary manner. For us, as Maoists, our job at this hystorical
point is to push forward national liberation struggles within oppressed
nations with revolutionary nationalism. We must build national
consciousness among oppressed nations so that these groups understand
that concepts such as race are false and Amerika is not representative
of their interests. These groups must come to understand that nations
exist and that their respective nation is entitled to exercise its right
to self-determination.
Why Black Lives Matter
The BLM movement is no different from the Chican@ movement that demanded
repeal of the chauvinist, racist, tough-on-immigrant legislation in
Arizona a few years back.
In the Chican@ communities, immigration is an extremely decisive issue.
Obama’s chauvinist policies have broken families apart, the mistreatment
of migrant workers in the workplace has become all too frequent, and in
general, under-served and under resourced Chican@ communities continue
to suffer from inequalities and poverty. The fact that Arizona was
trying to pass - and eventually passed - even more extreme
anti-immigrant laws was just the straw that broke the camel’s back,
mobilizing the Chican@ community.
Similarly, national oppression has wreaked havoc on the New Afrikan
community, as the New Afrikan is the face of inequality and injustice in
the United $tates. New Afrikans, particularly the youth, are tired of
the overt mistreatment. The BLM movement, while it arose in response to
police brutality, embodies the anger and angst of the New Afrikan nation
at the marginalization and repression they have suffered for years.
Movements like these must be used to our advantage as they demonstrate
that oppressed people are not just fed up with the system, they are
willing to commit themselves to actually changing it.
One key implication that arises from this is the recourse for oppressed
nations to overcome national oppression. Will U.$. oppressed nations vie
for liberation or will they settle for reform, and by extension,
assimilation and partial integration?
Mainstream media provide coverage on these events to control a group
that might otherwise threaten the status quo. Therefore, they act as a
supervisor rather than objective reporter all in an attempt to shape
public opinion and undermine revolutionary organizing. This has serious
consequences for the national liberation movement in the United $tates
as a whole. This is why the BLM movement is critical, because we cannot
allow the same outcome as took place at the end of the radical era of
the 1960s.
Conclusion
The impact of national oppression on U.$. internal semi-colonies and
oppressed nations has begun to push the national question forward. We
are starting to see a realization emerge among oppressed nations that
recognizes U.$. imperialist society is rife with inequalities and
injustices. Only revolutionary nationalism can nurture and grow this
seed of awareness. And if our goal is the liberation of oppressed
nations within the United $tates then we must build their national
consciousness in preparation. Movements like BLM illustrate the
potential and activism that is alive within oppressed nations. The duty
falls upon us to revolutionize it.
In MIM(Prisons)’s response to
“How to
Unite with White Lumpen” in ULK 46, it is pointed out that
white supremacists in prison generally do not make for allies in the
anti-imperialist struggle.
It is necessary to distinguish between white supremacist and so-called
white people. A white supremacist whole-heartedly believes the purported
“white race” is superior to all other skin colors. Because of this
supposed superiority, they believe it is moral and destined that they
should rule, dominate, and oppress/extort/enslave people of other skin
tones/colors. Naturally, these views are not scientific nor are they
compatible with Marx-Lenin-Maoist ideology.
In prison I’ve encountered varying groups of white supremacists: Aryan
Brotherhood, Odinists, Wotan, Christian identity, to name a few. Each
group has two prominent things in common: 1. Non-white races are not
equal and it isn’t wrong to treat them as inferior subhuman species; and
2. These groups idolize Hitler and the politics of National Socialism
(Nazism). Ironically, Hitler would have enslaved and/or exterminated
most of these white supremacists just as he did “white” poles, Czechs,
Russians, etc.
In the prison context my experience has been that the white prisoners
who are not affiliated with any lumpen organizations are more open to
anti-imperialist truth. Those who have been rejected, impoverished, put
in institutions at an early age, and generally shit upon by Amerikkkan
society have no allegiance to it. Don’t be blinded by the white, but
wisdom says don’t look for gold in a sack of pennies.
MIM(Prisons) responds: We agree with this writer’s assessment of
the greater potential to appeal to unaffiliated white prisoners than
those who are a part of explicitly supremacist groups. Different units
and facilities have their own unique cultures (as in the article under
discussion, the facility was reported to be controlled by the Black
Muslim population, a unique condition indeed). It’s certainly possible
that Amerikkkans in Virginia prisons are friendly to socialist ideas at
a higher-than-average rate. Whether they’re devoting their lives to
fighting against imperialism and oppression is another question
altogether, and is not something MIM(Prisons) has noticed in our work.
We still think it is worth noting that we are talking about national
oppression, not racism, and even the whites who have led very difficult
lives have been raised on an unconscious diet of national superiority.
It’s not that everyone is consciously racist, but the white nation as a
whole enjoys privileges that individuals don’t even notice in day-to-day
life.
White people don’t notice that the cops aren’t stopping them just for
“looking suspicious”, whereas cops regularly stop Black and Chican@
people for this reason, or none at all. White people don’t notice that
they’re receiving better treatment in so many situations, just as a
privilege of the nation to which they were born. At the same time,
whites are taught that they deserve better (as they are taught that New
Afrikans are more likely to commit crimes, Muslims are all terrorists,
Chican@s are lazy, etc.) and those who want to fight on the side of the
world’s oppressed must consciously fight against this mis-education.
That is what the article “How to Unite with White Lumpen” is about –
unaffiliated whites, who supposedly are not conscious white
supremacists, are very likely to get defensive in protecting their
superiority on questions of imperialism and liberation of oppressed
nations (i.e. on questions of reducing their national superiority).
We’re speaking in terms of generalizations and national tendencies
discovered through studying history and practice, not painting every
single Amerikkkan as an inherent, conscious and unchangeable white
supremacist.
We say Amerikkkans working against the interests of the predominantly
white Amerikkkan nation are “committing national suicide.” We encourage
them to do so, while not holding our breath waiting on them to take the
plunge. We call on all people to join the anti-imperialist struggle and
consciously work to end whatever national or class oppression they may
benefit from, for the benefit of humynity and the world as a whole.
Marcus Garvey and Amy Jacques
In response to the call to honor freedom fighters, it is an honor and
pleasure to journal the commemoration of New Afrikan freedom fighter Amy
Jacques Garvey.
So many today dismiss the Pan-Afrikan movement and its various bodies,
both within and outside of U.$. prisons, as that of an unnecessary call
and reference to an outdated idea. In the context of the proletarian
political causes, it is often the ultra-leftist who has taken up this
position.
However, in our attempts to fast forward the most correct methods of
resolving contradictions, we acknowledge that they come in the form of
class consciousness among nationalist leaders driven by internationalist
struggles led by the proletariat. The Pan-Afrikan movement is one likely
place where we find these elements.
Many prisoners are aware of the name
Marcus
Mosiah Garvey, but very few are familiar with Amy Jacques Garvey,
the wife of Marcus Garvey and the bone and marrow of the Universal Negro
Improvement Association (UNIA). Amy Garvey was a special person in the
history of liberation struggles. Born 31 December 1895 in Kingston,
Jamaica to a middle-upper class family, Amy Garvey was ahead of her
time. Though “all identity is individual, there is no individual
identity that is not historical or, in other words, constructed within a
field of social values, norms of behavior and collective symbols.”(1)
The mother of what author Ula Yvette Taylor coined “community feminism,”
Amy Garvey pressed the issue of lower class wimmin not only in serving
their male counterparts, but also educating themselves to become
political leaders in the nation. Today, lumpen wimmin of the internal
semi-colonies still find themselves criticized for either being
home-oriented or for sex. UNIA enjoyed support across gender and
promoted equality of the sexes. Yet, in practice, this “community
feminist” approach was a means of dealing with the expectations put on
wimmin to be supporters of men while still being political leaders.
While wimmin like Amy Garvey had to take on an unequal burden compared
to their male counterparts, their actions served to break down the
expectations of gendered roles, paving the way for others.
Amy Garvey empowered wimmin to confront racism, colonialism and
imperialism, while contesting masculine dominance as well.(2) As she
wrote, wimmin should use their “intelligence in a righteous cause” as
they are needed to “fill the breach, and fight as never before, for the
masses need intelligent dedicated leadership.”(3)
Since the 1920s, Amy Jacques Garvey’s organizing activities had sought
to further the decolonization of West Afrikan nations as people of
African descent endeavored to restructure their societies. The
antecedents of these largely nationalist movements were well-established
in Pan-Afrikan struggle that came into its own during the early 1940s,
including the fifth Pan-Afrikan Congress. Meanwhile, other power shifts
were occurring such as: the rise of the Soviet Union, liberation
struggles in southeast Asia, the independence of China and the
Asian-African
Bandung Conference.(4) Indeed, within this political milieu, “West
Afrikan nationalism and various brands of Pan-Africanism, could mix with
everything from Fabian socialism to Marxism-Leninism.”(5)
While engaging in the international arena, Amy Garvey also struggled
against fellow comrades of the UNIA. She was well known for her refusal
to hold her tongue on the contradictions that arose within, even at
times writing critical positions of Marcus Garvey himself. It resembles
so many of those within the belly of the beast babylon who struggle to
liberate themselves in order to offer liberation to their people, only
to be hushed by LO leadership.
Amy Garvey was from Jamaica and considered herself an Afrikan. She drove
home the point that people of Afrikan descent in the United $tates (New
Afrikans) and elsewhere were living as second-class citizens, largely as
a result of economic oppression. Today we see the second-class
citizenship that New Afrikans and Chican@s face as the biggest targets
of social isolation by the U.$. prison system. The second class that the
oppressed nations are being bred into today is what we call the First
World lumpen class. In the imperialist countries, that is the class that
has nothing to lose from a revolution except the very chains that bind
them to a bourgeois system that doesn’t serve them. “As the lumpen
experience oppression first hand here in Amerika, we are in a position
to spearhead the revolutionary vehicle within the U.$. borders.”(6)
The 2015 release of Chican@ Power and the Struggle for Aztlán
by a MIM(Prisons) study group introduces prisoners to the reality of
their class identity with the lumpen of oppressed internal semi-colonies
in North America.
“Kwame Nkrumah in his analysis of neo-colonialism in Africa defined it
as: ‘The essence of neo-colonialism is that the state which is subject
to it is, in theory, independent and has all the outward trappings of
international sovereignty. In reality its economic system and thus its
political policy is directed from outside.’ Nkrumah stressed the
importance of dividing the oppressed into smaller groups as part of this
process of preventing effective resistance to imperialism as had already
occurred in China, Vietnam, Korea, Cuba and elsewhere.”(7)
Amy Garvey too considered the likes of Kwame Nkrumah as her comrade,
alongside of Nnamdi Azikiwe, W.E.B. DuBois and George Padmore, just to
name a few. She was a disciplined, arduous scholar whose objective was
to fold Garveyism into existing progressive organizations, thus uniting
a divergent Pan-Afrikan world.
Many of the ideas that are circulated amongst the lumpen organizations
within the belly of the beast babylon are grafted from the ideas of the
peoples parties like the UNIA, whether they admit it or not. The proof
is in the pudding. Amy Garvey showed that one could stand on two legs
and not buckle under the pressure of integrationist culture.
Amy Garvey held Marcus Garvey up while he served his prison bid in
Atlanta, and took the driver’s seat of one of the world’s most
influential Negro organizations in its time when wimmin weren’t expected
to be political. It is so similar to the anti-imperialist prisoner
movement; prisoners aren’t expected to be political souljahs.
Death to babylon-imperialism!
MIM(Prisons) adds: MIM said that Pan-Afrikanism should be a
strategic question, and is not worth splitting over.(8) They also said
that Pan-Afrikanism has historically been the most progressive of the
“pan” ideologies. Clearly that the Pan-Afrikan mission has yet to
succeed in the dire need for effective revolutionary leadership is
evident in the recent revelations that
“In 2014, the U.S. carried out 674 military activities across Africa,
nearly two missions per day, an almost 300% jump in the number of annual
operations, exercises, and military-to-military training activities
since U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) was established in 2008.”(9)
The imperialists continue to foment the tribal divisions across the
African continent to wage proxy wars that amount to inter-proletarian
killing on the ground. The overwhelming proletarian character of the
populations in Africa gives Pan-Afrikanism its strong progressive
character.
by a West Virginia prisoner November 2015 permalink
For my essay I chose Frederick Douglass. I admire his inner strength,
free spirit, and intelligence. I believe that he could see opportunity
in every situation. For example, when his oppressors became so irate of
his learning to read and write, he knew that things that are restricted
are usually worthy of pursuit.
He overcame so many obstacles with so few resources, and he gives me
motivation and inspiration to overcome and succeed, although my
difficulties are minor compared to his. He was a great man and an unsung
hero of freedom fighting. He must have thought to himself that it was
better to risk death and fight for his freedom, than to conform to the
wishes of tyrannical beings.
He fought and won. So much was against him and yet his spirit refused to
be broken. He knew how powerful words can be. He learned them and
mastered them. And once he’d won, he didn’t let the realm of success
lull him into complacency – a realm where many men venture and are
swallowed, ending their reign of greatness. No, Frederick Douglass was a
mossless stone; he never stagnated. Douglass continued pressing forward,
not only bettering himself, but also bettering those he came in contact
with and helping other oppressed individuals.
His written word will echo through the generations, inspiring thousands
and perhaps millions. The American education system gives him only a
cursory glance, then moves on to lies about founding fathers. Imagine if
they lingered longer or more often on Frederick Douglass, and the
valuable influence on those impressionable minds he would render.
Frequently, I wonder about a stronger, less passive and more spirited
generation. Like Frederick Douglass.
MIM(Prisons) adds: Frederick Douglass was born into slavery
around 1818 in Maryland. Ey escaped slavery and went on to become a
prolific writer, speaker, and newspaper publisher. Eir primary battles
were against slavery and for wimmin’s right to vote. Douglass had a
similar path to radicalization as many readers of ULK, even
though ey lived almost two centuries ago.
Douglass was taught the alphabet at around 12 years old from eir
slavemaster’s wife. Even though ey was discouraged from reading,
sometimes with violence, Douglass continued to study and taught many
others how to read as well. With the ability to read, Douglass became
politicized through reading newspapers, which helped em develop into an
internationally-acclaimed writer and speaker against slavery and
oppression.
Even in the face of censorship and lack of programming, many U.$.
prisoners build themselves and others up in the same way Douglass did.
Present-day prisoners are not allowed to come together in a group to
study, for “security threat concerns,” which parallels Douglass’s
experience of having eir weekly literacy classes disbanded by the clubs
and stones of slave owners. Nowdays, those who try to teach in spite of
restrictions are locked in isolation toture cells.
Without good literacy skills, one can’t file a lawsuit, or write
grievances, or understand the prison handbook, or read Under Lock
& Key; get the picture? Various sources state that 60-70% of
U.$. prisoners are functionally illiterate.(1) Illiteracy affects the
majority of prisoners, and thus hinders the organization of the majority
of our subscribers’ peers. Passing on an issue of ULK does
little good if the recipient can’t understand it.
Statistics from the prisoncrats themselves state that prisoners have a
70% chance of recidivism if they get no help with their literacy,
whereas prisoners who do receive literacy help have a 16% chance of
recidivism.(2) We wonder, why aren’t there more programs for teaching
reading comprehension and writing skills in prisons? It’s clearly a
continuation of the same exact national oppression faced by Frederick
Douglass’s generation.
That we are still having a conversation about building literacy
among New Afrikans should give us a clue of the ineffectiveness of
reformism and the necessity of complete communist revolution. After
gaining state power, one of the first steps of this revolution will be
to establish a joint dictatorship of the proletariat of the oppressed
nations (JDPON), so that the most oppressed people in the world can
dictate to those who have been oppressing others for centuries
how society will be run. As was done in communist China under Mao, one
of the primary functions of this dictatorship of the proletariat will be
to build literacy at every single level of society, and especially among
those who are furthest removed from the benefits of the economic system.
One can’t fully participate in society’s development without literacy,
and we need as many people as possible to participate.
We want to do as much as we can now to speed up the transition from
capitalism to communism, and reading and writing are essential to this
task. Building literacy also fits well into our immature Re-Lease on
Life program, so those who are released can have a better chance of
success and hopefully also a better chance of staying engaged in
political work when on the outside. Even though MIM(Prisons) and United
Struggle from Within are on a much smaller scale than a JDPON, or even a
single nation-state, we can still contribute to this goal while we build
for a society where advanced literacy is taught to everyone
systematically.
Douglass is just one individual example of a larger social phenomenon:
when higher education meets a lack of opportunity, it produces
radicalization and objection to the status quo. We know there is much
more we can do to increase the reading and writing skills of oppressed
nation lumpen in U.$. prisons, and to foster this politicization. But
since MIM(Prisons) can only reach people with written material, we need
our comrades behind bars to do the work on the ground. Anyone who is
already teaching others basic literacy skills should get in touch with
MIM(Prisons) to help us develop this Serve the People program. If you
already have a study group, try to think how you can expand it to teach
literacy as well. Tell us what materials we can send you to help you
teach reading and writing to others. It is one of the ways we can
improve the material conditions of our fellow oppressed peoples, and one
way we can uphold the legacy of Frederick Douglass.
We’ve been working hard to express the need to end all hostilities
amongst all ethnicities. Us New Afrikans here in the belly of the beast
known as the Corcoran SHU have just completed a beautiful BAM (Black
August Resistance/Memorial) and we came together to struggle today
[September 9th] for the purpose of unity. We exercised in a group that
consisted of ourselves, a couple southern Hispanics, and a northern
Hispanic. Our study habits still consist of revolutionary literature,
economics, politics and some history where our cultural and social
interactions are similar without division.
We don’t have a short corridor anymore here in this concrete tomb, so
with people arriving from the mainline just to do a SHU term we can
educate them on the importance of the agreement to end all racial
hostilities, and stay on guard because the fascist oppressors will
always try to sabotage our collective struggle. A lot of these
youngsters who come in here don’t have a clue about the
Attica
uprising or Black August Memorial, and how could they when all the
teachers of New Afrikans struggles are still anguishing behind enemy
lines. The importance of us getting out of the SHU is to educate our
youth about their history.
Today we had a group study session on the importance of revolutionary
internationalism, which is the ideological expression of global
revolutionary scientific socialism in service to the oppressed
underclass of the world. We feel that revolutionary internationalism is
the ideological vanguard of global liberation and source of theoretical
development in coordinating disparate national revolutions. Also,
keeping the permanent struggle of ideological mental warfare going in
order to eradicate backwards and unprincipled thinking, or incompatible
ideas or activities, and proving the correctness of the revolutionary
party’s views.
This weapon in which we speak is part of the dialectical processes that
are ongoing and endless, until the principle contradictions of the
oppressed and the oppressor are eliminated. Once this takes place you
will see the transformation of the cultural values, practices and
relationships of the people prepare and condition themselves for a
revolution against the oppressor state. The outcome is uprooting and
destroying the old oppressive rationale and mindset of colonial society
and bringing into being new values which move the people outside of the
colonial mindset and into that of the emerging revolutionary society. We
can accomplish this through the agreement to end all hostilities. So we
strive to do so. It’s a long out-dated situation that produced no
winners, and only losers, and that has also further pushed us into
oppression. We realize that now, and since it’s not too late to correct
it, we struggle collectively to do so.
[Recently several prisoners wrote in to describe the religious
discrimination against Muslims going on in Arkansas prisons. The Supreme
Court determined that the prison must allow people to grow facial hair
if this is a part of their religious beliefs, but the Delta Regional
Unit continues to deny this right. Below, several correspondents explain
their struggle.]
Prisoner #1: I am a Muslim and through religious beliefs I should be
able to grow and groom neat facial hair. It was proven in the Supreme
Court (Holt vs. Hobbs 135 S. CT. 853) that the Arkansas
Department of Corrections (ADC) policy was not the least restrictive
means of preventing prisoners from hiding contraband and disguising
their identities. I went through all proper procedures and paperwork to
get a script saying I was able to grow my facial hair through religious
beliefs. I was approved by the unit Chaplain for my script, but when it
came to the next step of the Warden signing off on it I was denied due
to him determining if I was sincere enough. What gives the Warden the
right to determine a person’s sincerity about their religious beliefs?
Prisoner #2: I am currently incarcerated at the Delta Regional Unit in
Deumott, Arkansas. I have been in my walk of faith (Islam) sincerely for
almost three years now. In the beginning I didn’t think that I would
suffer from so much ridicule for choosing this way of life, but still, I
hold my head high and continue on my walk of faith.
Sometime and somehow, this ridicule and discrimination has to cease. I
am ready to come together with a group of fellow prisoner to stand up
for our rights as well as the things we believe in.
The current problem that I am having involves the ADC programming
policy. A law was recently passed that allows prisoners to grow their
hair and/or facial hair for religious purposes only, and Muslims seem to
be the majority of those who are being denied their rights, along with
me as well. I am currently in the middle of a grievance process because
I was denied my script. I think the problem is religious discrimination.
Prisoner #3: Warden James Gibson and the Chaplain Chuck Gladdon are
violating the constitutional rights of the Muslims and other prisoners
under their care. The supreme court ruled in Holt v. Hobbs that
the grooming policy was a substantial burden on prisoners’ religion, by
not allowing them to grow facial hair/beards. As to security concerns,
the Supreme Court also said it was not the least restrictive means of
stopping prisoners from hiding contraband, or disguising their identity.
The procedures are still burdensome because all the Muslims who apply
for the right to wear a beard are denied automatically while the white
inmates are receiving the right to grow hair or receiving a religious
accommodation script from Warden Gibson and Chaplain Gladdon. Even after
the Supreme Court made its ruling, this has not changed.
MIM(Prisons) responds: This denial of rights to Muslim prisoners
is more than just religious discrimination. Because the majority of
Muslims in Amerikkkan prisons are New Afrikan or Arab, targeting Muslims
fits in with the overall system of national oppression that is
especially acute within the criminal injustice system in the United
$tates. Further, Amerikans like to equate Islam with terrorism in a
racist attempt to denigrate entire nations. While the cultural practice
of growing facial hair is not a particularly revolutionary battle
relevant to the Maoist movement, this attack on oppressed nations under
the guise of religious expression is important to expose.
Communists are working towards a world where all people are free to
express themselves, without restrictions that come from the oppression
of groups of people by others. However, we are also working towards a
society where all people are provided education and scientific analysis
around the false prophets and gods that religion proffers. We do not
need faith in higher mystical powers, instead we need humynity to take
responsibility for its own destiny and build a society where we can have
faith in the ability of people to solve the problems created by people,
as well as the problems we face in our material world.
Under socialism, all people will have the freedom to practice whatever
religion they choose, but they will not be given the platform to
proselytize for their religion and build a broader movement of
mysticism. Science and scientific thinking will be the basis of
education. Only this scientific method will ensure an end to oppression
of all groups of people. For more on how religion was handled in
communist China under Mao, ask for our religion study pack.
On 12 August 2015, Hugo “Yogi Bear” Pinell was murdered on the yard at
California State Prison – Sacramento in Represa, also known as New
Folsom Prison. Yogi was in solitary confinement a week prior to his
murder, having spent 46 years in solitary confinement. Yet somehow
someone on the yard had enough beef with him to murder the 71-year-old
man in cold blood? Not possible. Yogi’s blood is on the hands of the
state officials in charge of CSP-Sacramento.
Memorializing Yogi, his comrade David Johnson called him an “educator”
and the “spirit of the prison movement.”(1) Former Black Panther and
long-term friend Kiilu Nyasha said the word that came to her mind was
“love.”(2) Most of the information in this article comes from Kiilu as
well as Yogi’s fellow San Quentin 6 comrades David Johnson and Sundiata
Tate.(3) All recounted stories of his immense love, his prominent
leadership, his indomitable spirit, his dedication to creating and
becoming the “new man” and his role in educating others.
The state of California attacked Hugo Pinell for 50 years, from the time
of his imprisonment on a phony charge of raping and kidnapping a white
womyn, through to his death this week. He was one of a number of
comrades involved in an incident on 21 August 1971, in which George
Jackson was killed along with three prison guards and two prisoner
trustees. Hugo Pinell was charged and convicted with slashing the
throats of two prison guards during this incident, though neither was
killed. One of these guards was known to have murdered a New Afrikan
prisoner in Soledad and had gone unpunished. Those prisoners charged
with crimes for the events of 21 August 1971 became known as the San
Quentin 6. It was this incident, and the murder of George Jackson in
particular, that triggered the takeover of the Attica Correctional
Facility in New York by prisoners of all nationalities in response to
the oppressive conditions they had faced there for years. Beginning on 9
September 1971, the prisoners controlled the prison for four days,
setting up kitchens, medical support, and communications via collective
organizing. Prison guards were treated with respect and given proper
food and medical care like everyone else. It all ended on 13 September
1971 when the National Guard invaded the yard, killed 29 prisoners and 9
staff, and tortured hundreds after they regained control. It is the
collective organizing for positive change that occurred during those
four days that we celebrate on the September 9 Day of Peace and
Solidarity in prisons across the United $tates.
The prisoners in Attica acted in the ideals of men like George Jackson
and Hugo Pinell who were well-respected leaders of the first wave of the
prison movement. Jackson, Pinell and their comrades, many who are still
alive and mourning and commemorating Yogi’s death(1, 3), always promoted
unity and the interests of all prisoners as a group. The Attica brothers
took this same philosophy to a more spectacular level, where they
flipped the power structure so that the oppressed were in control. Not
long afterward, prisoners at Walpole in Massachusetts won control of
that facility as a result of the events at Attica. In both cases
prisoners worked together collectively to meet the needs of all, peace
prevailed, and spirits rose. Like a dictatorship of the proletariat on a
smaller scale, these prisoners proved that when the oppressed are in
power conditions for all improve. And it is historicaly examples like
these that lead us to believe that is the way to end oppression.
Following the incidents of August and September 1971, the Black Panther
Party printed a feature article on Hugo Pinell, who they upheld as “a
member in good standing of the Black Panther Party.” It read in part:
“[Prisoners across the United States] began to realize as Comrade George
Jackson would say, that they were all a part of the prisoner class. They
began to realize that there was no way to survive that special brand of
fascism particular to California prison camps, except by beginning to
work and struggle together. Divisions, such as this one, like family
feuds, often take time to resolve. The common goal of liberation and the
desire for freedom helps to make the division itself disappear, and the
reason for its existence become clearer and clearer. The prisoner class,
especially in California, began to understand the age-old fascist
principle: if you can divide, you can conquer.
“There are two men who were chiefly responsible for bringing this idea
to the forefront. They helped other comrade inmates to transform the
ideas of self-hatred and division into unity and love common to all
people fighting to survive and retain dignity. These two Brothers not
only set this example in words, but in practice. Comrade George Jackson
and Comrade Hugo Pinell, one Black and one Latino, were the living
examples of the unity that can and must exist among the prisoner class.
These two men were well-known to other inmates as strong defenders of
their people. Everyone knew of their love for the people; a love that
astounded especially the prison officials of the State. It astounded
them so thoroughly that these pigs had to try and portray them as
animals, perverts, madmen and criminals, in order to justify their plans
to eventually get rid of such men. For when Comrades George and Hugo
walked and talked together, the prisoners began to get the message too
well.”(4)
Today the prison movement is in another phase of coming together,
realizing their common class interests. It is amazing that it is in this
new era of coming together that the pigs finally murder Yogi, on the
three year anniversary of the announcement of the plans to end all
hostilities across the California prisons system to unite for common
interests. This timing should be lost on no one.
As a Nicaraguan, Yogi became hated by certain influential Mexicans in
the prison system for ignoring their orders not to hang with New
Afrikans. While the prison movement over the last half-century has
chipped away at such racism, we also know that racism is an idea that is
the product of imperialism. Until we eliminate the oppression of nations
by other nations, we will not eliminate racism completely. But we work
hard to fight it within the oppressed and in particular among prisoners,
as Yogi, George and others did 50 years ago.
In the 1950s and 1960s the racism was brutal, with nazis openly working
with correctional staff. The state used poor, uneducated whites as the
foot soldiers of their brutal system of oppression that is the U.$.
injustice system. Tate and Johnson tell stories of being terrorized with
the chants of “nigger, nigger, nigger” all night long when they first
entered the California prison system as youth.(1, 3) While we don’t
agree with George Jackson’s use of the term “fascist” to describe the
United $tates in his day, we do see a kernel of truth in that
description in the prison system, and the white prisoners were often
lining up on the side of the state. But the efforts of courageous
leaders broke down that alliance, and leaders of white lumpen
organizations joined with the oppressed nation prisoners for their
common interests as prisoners at the height of the prison movement in
California.
We recognize the national contradiction, between the historically and
predominantly white Amerikan nation and the oppressed internal
semi-colonies, to be the principal contradiction in the United $tates
today. Yet, this is often dampened and more nuanced in the prison
system. Our white readership is proportional to the white population in
prisons, and we have many strong white supporters. So while we give
particular attention to the struggles of prisoners as it relates to
national liberation movements, we support the prison movement as a whole
to the extent that it aligns itself with the oppressed people of the
world against imperialism.
The biggest complaint among would-be prison organizers is usually the
“lack of unity.” Any potential unity is deliberately broken down through
means of threats, torture and even murder by the state. Control Units
exist to keep people like Yogi locked down for four and a half decades.
Yet another wave of the prison movement is here. It is embodied in the
30,000 prisoners who acted together on 8 July 2013, and in the 3 years
of no hostilities between lumpen organizations in the California prison
system. Right now there is nothing more important in California than
pushing the continuation of this unity. In the face of threats by
individuals to create cracks in that unity, in the face of the murder of
an elder of the movement, in order to follow through on the campaign to
end the torture of long-term isolation, in order to protect the lives of
prisoners throughout the state and end unnecessary killings, there is
nothing more important to be doing in California prisons right now than
expanding the Agreement to End Hostilities to realize the visions of our
elders like Hugo “Yogi Bear” Pinell.
Amerikkkan imperialists often claim that they have overcome their dark
past of slavery. Of course, their wish is to dismiss the stench of the
putrid acts of their forefathers but those acts are memorialized for all
the world to see in documents such as the Declaration of Independence
and the Constitution of the United Snakes. In the former we read, “All
men are created equal” but in the latter we find “excluding Indians not
taxed, three-fifths of all other persons.”(1) This means, of course,
that only white men are created equal. Women and “Indians” (indigenous
Americans) do not count, and Africans count as 3/5 a person. According
to these white Flub Fuckers, I mean Founding Fathers, only white men are
fully human; everyone else is less than, or nothing.
The modern white imperialists say they fought wars to correct their past
stench. These pukes say slavery is a thing of the past; that slavery is
abolished, and we should “forget it and move forward.”
But after the so-called civil war that allegedly abolished slavery, we
find the 13th Amendment to the Constitution was passed. This amendment
reads, in pertinent part: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude,
except as punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly
convicted, shall exist in the United States, or any place subject to
their jurisdiction.” Are we perceiving a pattern? “All men are created
equal” except. “Slavery is abolished except…”
In the nineteenth century cities were burned, courthouses bombed, and
Presidents assassinated to bring about an end to most slavery in the
united snakes. Is that what it will take to get it through the thick
skulls of the modern imperialists that slavery is repugnant under any
circumstances: no exceptions!
While this article is not broad enough in scope to compare modern
penological practice with nineteenth century slavery, let us note that
today’s prisoners and former slaves:
Are disenfranchised, forbidden to vote in both federal and state
elections.(2)
Are not considered persons nor employees, and may be forced to labor
without compensation.(3)
Do not have any right to wages, nor granted any humane civil
protections under the Fair Labor Standards Act or the Federal Minimum
Wage Law.(4)
Do not have any rights to property in most instances, we are
property.(5)
While Amerikkkan slavery was more severe than incarceration in
Amerikkka’s gulag today, the overwhelming thrust behind both
institutions is a disgusting conviction that one group of humans is
somehow superior and has the right to degrade and deprive the other
group.
No one would seriously argue that the majority of slaves in kkkolonial
Amerikkka was any race other than Afrikan. But what about the prisoners
in Amerikkka’s gulag?
It is widely known that the united snakes imprisons more people than any
other nation per capita. It is said the United $tates has just 4.4% of
the world’s population yet locks about 25% of all the world’s prisoners
in its gulags.
As of 31 December 2012, there were 1,570,397 people in bondage in
federal and state correctional facilities in the United $tates (not
including jails). That year Black males were incarcerated at a rate 610%
higher than white males (Blacks 2,841 per 100,000 U.$. residents vs
whites 463 per 100,000).(6)
In state facilities at the end of 2011 there were 509,677 Black men and
women prisoners which is 38% of the total prisoner population of
1,341,804. By contrast white men and women accounted for only 34.7%. And
yet Blacks comprise just 13% of the entire U.$. population whereas
whites are 80%.(7) Said another way, of the 41,455,973 Blacks in the
united snakes, 509,677 are in a state correctional facility
(approximately 1%) serving a prison sentence, but merely 465,180 of the
255,113,682 whites (1/5 of 1%) are in prison. Mathematically five times
as much of the Black population is in prison compared to white
population.
Does this mean Blacks are more “criminally active” than whites? Let the
documents speak. Of the 9,390,473 arrests in 2012, 6,502,919 or 69.3% of
the arrestees were white. There were only 2,640,067 Blacks arrested, or
28.1% of all arrestees were Black. So how is it the majority of the
prisoners are Black? Because the white imperialist injustice system
prosecutes Blacks and crushes them with lengthy prison sentences while
the majority of whites have charges dropped, or lowered to lesser
offenses, or get probation/pretrial diversion, or have expensive
attorneys for trial, etc.
While imperialists do not profit from the labor of prisoners as their
forefathers did from slaves, imprisonment keeps Blacks from competing
against upper class whites in the job market. The labor aristocracy
maintains its white hegemony. Be sure not all white imperialists are
Caucasian. Ask President Obama, Oprah Winfrey, and Marco Rubio what they
think of the 13th Amendment and the deprivation of basic rights to
prisoners economically. The next time an imperialist Amerikkkan sings
jingoism about the United $tates correcting its addiction to slavery and
exploitation, simply say “bullshit.” But soon the people will crush it.
Til then let us educate with plans to eradicate.
MIM(Prisons) responds: This comrade makes a solid case for the
existence of national oppression within the United $tates today, as
evidenced by the disproportionate treatment of New Afrikans compared to
whites in the criminial injustice system. And by correctly noting that
the imperialists do not profit from the labor of prisoners, this writer
also provides the reason why we do not call prisoners, even those forced
to work for no wages, slaves. (See ULK 8 for more on the
U.$.
prison economy). Further, unlike slaves, prisoners can not be bought
and sold like property. And so on this point we disagree with the
author: we do not call prisoners “property” just like we don’t consider
prisoners to be “slaves.”