MIM(Prisons) is a cell of revolutionaries serving the oppressed masses inside U.$. prisons, guided by the communist ideology of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism.
Under Lock & Key is a news service written by and for prisoners with a focus on what is going on behind bars throughout the United States. Under Lock & Key is available to U.S. prisoners for free through MIM(Prisons)'s Free Political Literature to Prisoners Program, by writing:
MIM(Prisons) PO Box 40799 San Francisco, CA 94140.
April 22 - The U.$. Supreme Court upheld a Michigan ban on affirmative
action in admission decisions to public universities, a final decision
that reinforces national oppression in education from grade school
through college. The majority opinion of the court upheld the state law
that was enacted by Michigan voters in 2006. In addition to Michigan,
seven other states have enacted similar bans: California, Florida,
Washington, Arizona, Nebraska, Oklahoma and New Hampshire.(1)
The Supreme Court couched their ruling in arguments about upholding
democracy: “It is demeaning to the democratic process to presume that
the voters are not capable of deciding an issue of this sensitivity on
decent and rational grounds,” justice Kennedy explained in the majority
decision.(1) This faith in the capability of the voters in Amerika is
only correct if we seek to reinforce white supremacy. 76% of Michigan’s
population is white, and Amerikan capitalism promotes individualism and
self-interest, so we should expect this population to vote in their own
persynal interests, which rest on national oppression. “Decent and
rational grounds” cannot be found as the basis for banning a practice of
affirmative action that attempts to address the unequal access to
educational opportunities offered oppressed nation youth in the United
$tates.
As we explained in 2012 when a lower court ruling was issued on this
case, bans on affirmative action are fundamentally reactionary in that
they preserve white privilege, but
overall
affirmative action itself has failed oppressed nation youth.
Affirmative action does not address the fundamental inequalities faced
by oppressed nations within U.$. borders, it’s just an attempt to deal
with the effects of these inequalities in young adults. As we wrote in
that article: “The achievement gap between Black and white children went
down between the Brown v Board of Education ruling and the late
1980s. But it started to grow again in the early 1990s. By 2005, in
about half the high schools (those with the largest concentration of
Blacks and Latinos) in the 100 largest districts in the country less
than half the students entering the schools in ninth grade were
graduating high school. Between 1993 and 2002 the number of high schools
with this problem increased by 75%. These numbers, not surprisingly,
coincide with a drop in Black and Latino enrollment in public
universities.”(1)
The affirmative action debate highlights the ongoing existence of
national oppression within U.$. borders. And it underscores the
intersection of class and nation, keeping a sizable portion of New
Afrikans and Latinos without a high school diploma and unable to take
advantage of affirmative action in college admission even where it still
exists. This goes back to the way that public education is funded in the
United $tates, through property taxes, ensuring that poor neighborhoods
will have lower quality education and denying kids from those
neighborhoods the opportunities availabile to kids from wealthier
neighborhoods. This economic segregation is tied to national
segregation, creating a cycle of poverty that reinforces national
oppression within this wealthy imperialist country.
The debate over affirmative action at the college level gets at the core
of what equality is. Those who demand “blind” admissions practices have
to pretend that everyone applying for college admissions had equal
opportunities up to the point of college application. And this gives us
a chance to challenge people on what many like to call a “color-blind”
society. Even looking at the privileged Blacks and Latinos who went to
schools good enough to qualify them to apply for college admission,
pretending equality is only possible if we ignore all the aspects of
oppression that these groups face in the U.$., from overt racial hatred
to subtle cultural messages of inferiority. Society sets oppressed
nation youth up for failure from birth, with TV and movies portraying
criminals as Black and Latino and successful corporate employees as
white. These youth are stopped by cops on the streets for the offense of
skin color alone, looked at suspiciously in stores, and presumed to be
less intelligent in school.
But the real problem is not the privileged Black and Latino students
qualified to apply for college admission. These individual students from
oppressed nations who are able to achieve enough to apply to colleges
that have admissions requirements are a part of the petty bourgeoisie.
The reality is very different for the other half of the oppressed nation
youth who are tracked right out of college from first grade (or before)
and have no chance of even attending a college that has admissions
requirements beyond a high school diploma.
Among the students who entered high school in ninth grade, 63% of
Latinos, 59% of Blacks and 53% of First Nations graduated high school in
2009. This is compared to 81% of Asians and 79% of whites. Overall the
Black-white and Latino-white graduation rate gap narrowed between 1999
and 2009 but is still very large.(2)
This recent court ruling reinforces our belief that we cannot expect
Amerika to reform away national oppression, even within U.$. borders
where some formerly oppressed nations have been integrated into the
oppressor majority. At this point in history, imperialism vs. the
oppressed nations is the principal contradiction both globally and
within u.s. borders. The dramatic differences in educational access and
achievement are just one example of the oppressed/oppressor nation
differentials. MIM(Prisons) fights on the side of oppressed nations
everywhere for the revolution that will overthrow imperialism end
national oppression.
Reading
MIM
Theory #7: Proletarian Feminist Nationalism I couldn’t help but
notice that to date there has been a strong trend of oppressed nationals
becoming more and more molded and fitted to U.$. culture and its
parasitic ways.
A quote by Malcolm X found in MT7 struck me hard: “I’m not going to sit
at your table and watch you eat, with nothing on my plate, and call
myself a diner. Sitting at the table doesn’t make you a diner, unless
you eat some of what’s on that plate. Being here in America doesn’t make
you an American. Being born here in America doesn’t make you an
American.”…“No, I am not an American, I’m one of the 22 million black
people who are the victims of Americanism. I don’t see any American
dream, I see an American nightmare.”(1)
I’m hard pressed to find an organization that’s “Latino” nationalist and
agitating for the emancipation of what is currently the south western
portion of the United $tates to become a nation itself.
These days you hear Latinos all throughout the United $tates clamoring
for comprehensive immigration reform. Enough of this assimilation, and
how about a call for what was once Mexico to return to its people.
Whether this emancipated state will become part of modern day Mexico or
form its own nation is for the people to decide for themselves. Those
same people clamoring for immigration reform, who fail to realize that
they are an oppressed nation within an oppressor nation, can’t help but
feel as if they constitute a part of this oppressor class (white
chauvinism). The policies that will be enacted due to their protesting
and petitions will only hurt and destroy the Latino communities. As a
people who are already stigmatized and oppressed, the crumbs of the
white nation are counter to the ultimate interests of Latino people.
It’s no secret how the INS and ICE deport huge numbers of Latino people
who only come here to make and earn a living. Some might ask: if Amerika
is so fucked up why do you want Latinos here? Well if numbers are power
then the more people we have the better we are able to form a
revolutionary nationalistic party and arouse national sentiment in face
of brutality. Moreover as burdensome jobs will go to those immigrants
the better it’ll be to swell the ranks of the proletariat.
Most people these days are so jingoistic with Amerikanism that at the
same time they wave the U.$. flag they wave their country of origin flag
too, not grasping how NAFTA and trade relations with “south Amerika” are
one sided and are to the advantage of the white U.$. middle class. Even
within prison you hear prisoners clamoring of how great the United
$tates is.
Oppressed nations must take notice that you are not what the U.$.
constitution meant to defend, you never will be and it’s futile to think
cheering and asking for reforms will free your nation. H. Ford Douglas
put it nicely: “There is as much force in a black [Brown, red, etc]
man’s standing up and exclaiming after the manner of the ‘old Roman’ -
‘I am an American citizen,’ as there was in the Irish man who swore he
was a loaf of bread, because he happened to be born in a bake oven… I
can hate this government without being disloyal, because it has stricken
down my manhood and treated me as a saleable commodity. I can join a
foreign enemy and fight against it, without being a traitor, because it
treats me as an ALIEN and a STRANGER, and I am free to avow that should
such a contingency arise I should not hesitate to take any advantage in
order to procure indemnity for the future. I can feel no pride in the
glory, growth, greatness or grandeur of this nation.”(2)
In Ironwood, apparently new regulations have come down from Sacramento
ordering staff to remove all signs from the doors depicting race. There
were signs on the prison cage door indicating race: blue was for Black,
red for Mexican, white for white and green for other. Now the
designation for race is Security Threat Group (STG).
There was a recent lockdown (a melee between Sureños and New Afrikans)
in one of the housing units. A status report stated that the
investigation has been concluded and prisoners who are not members of
the affected STGs will resume normal program. In the body of the report
the affected STGs identified were Bloods, Crips and Sureños. The next
day only whites and “others” were released for program. When asked about
the non-affected Afrikans and the non-affected Mexicans, we were
informed that because the non-affected prisoners shower in the same
showers as the affected prisoners that makes them associates. So
effectively all Afrikans and Mexicans are locked down (according to
“race”).
Up until the argument between a Mexican and an Afrikan on 30 November
2013, the nationalities on this compound got along. Communication has
resolved the issues and things are back to normal except for the
administration milking the lockdown. The influential people are reminded
of the word that came down from their folks up the way and have been
striving hard to maintain the peace.
MIM(Prisons) responds: Group punishment is one of the unjust
practices that prisoners who have been organizing around humyn rights in
California have demanded an end to. And it goes to show how the state
systematically oppresses people based on their “race” in 2013.
The last paragraph of this report is particularly important as it
exemplifies the hard work that has been put in by members and leaders of
various lumpen organizations across California to create peace and build
unity in the fight against the criminal injustice system. We are happy
to hear that even while the prison is trying to divide prisoners and set
them against one another, prisoners are working to maintain peace. We
encourage prisoners everywhere to get involved in the
United Front
for Peace in Prisons (UFPP) which was initiated in 2011 to build
peace and unity among prisoners to advance our struggle against the
criminal injustice system. This prisoner’s letter demonstrates the first
principle of the UFPP, Peace: “We organize to end the needless conflicts
and violence within the U.$. prison environment. The oppressors use
divide and conquer strategies so that we fight each other instead of
them. We will stand together and defend ourselves from oppression.”
The Butler portrays the life of Cecil Gaines, a butler in the
White House for 34 years, starting in 1957. The movie is a fictionalized
version of the story of Gene Allen’s life. MIM(Prisons) sums up this
movie as propaganda to quell the just anger of the oppressed nation
masses, encouraging them to work within the system for small changes.
The focus of the movie is on the oppression of New Afrikans from the
1950s to the year 2008, dividing its focus between the White House and
the successive Presidents, and the activists in the streets. In the
streets the movie gives special focus to the Freedom Riders and Martin
Luther King Jr. The movie derides the most important political leaders
of the time, barely mentioning Malcolm X, and attempting to portray the
Black Panther Party (BPP) as a brutally violent movement out to kill
whites, just using the community service programs like free breakfast
for school children as a cover.
The heroes of the movie include Gaines’s son, Louis, who participates in
the civil rights and activist movements over the years and eventually
“learns” that the best way forward is to push for change from within,
and runs for Congress. We see his dedication as a Freedom Rider, and
fierce commitment to freedom and justice, as Louis literally puts his
life on the line, enduring brutal beatings, repeated imprisonments, and
constant threat of death. Louis moves on to work with Martin Luther King
Jr. in a highly praised non-violent movement, and then joins the BPP
after King is killed. Louis turns from an articulate and brave youth
into a kid spouting revolutionary platitudes that he doesn’t seem to
understand, making the BPP into a mockery of what it really represented.
The other heroes of the movie are the U.$. Presidents. With the
exception of Nixon, who is portrayed as a drunk, all the other
Presidents are humanized and made to appear appropriately sympathetic
with the civil rights movement. While they all are shown saying things
clearly offensive, racist, and in favor of national oppression, each
President has a moment of redemption. John F. Kennedy tells Gaines that
it is Gaines’s persynal history and the story of his son’s activism that
changed his mind on the need for the civil rights movement. Even Ronald
Reagan is shown secretly sending cash to people who write to him about
their financial problems, and telling Gaines that he’s sometimes worried
that he’s on the wrong side of the civil rights movement. On a positive
note, all of the Presidents were shown as reticent to take any positive
action towards change until the popular movement forced them to act.
This is the reality of any oppressor class.
Gaines does, in the end, come to the realization that real change was
not going to come from the White House, and quits his job to join his
son in activism in the streets. But this action is played up to be as
much an attempt to reconcile his relationship with his son, as a
dedication to activism itself. And the activism seems to end with just
one protest. In the end, both Cecil and Louis celebrate the “victory” of
Obama in the 2008 election as a sign that their battle is finally over.
The Butler does a good job of portraying the Civil Rights
movement of the 1950s and 60s, but only as a minor part of the plot. And
it ultimately suggests that New Afrikans should be satisfied with an
imperialist lackey in the White House as a representation of their
success and equality with whites. It fits into a group of recent movies
that Hollywood has produced, such as Lincoln and
12
Years a Slave, to rewrite Amerikan history to quell the
contradiction between the oppressor nation and the New Afrikan internal
semi-colony.
Many have seen the stunning October 28 video of police in New Mexico
assaulting a New Afrikan family after pulling them over on the side of
the road. To most of Amerika this type of footage is shocking for any
number of reasons. Whether it be because the teenage son was tazered by
police for trying to protect his mother from pig oppression, or because
police shot at the kid-filled van. Most Amerikans deem this type of
behavior unacceptable and they demand answers. Likewise, some within
Amerika agree that this behavior is not what those who “protect &
serve” should be doing, but they’ll come up with excuses for the police
such as, they only have a split second to react, and in the heat of the
moment hesitation can cost you your life. And then there are the more
convoluted excuses such as, the police did what they did because of PTSD
(Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder), or any other such stress-related
condition associated with being a cop. And to the white settler-state,
and even to some from the oppressed internal nations, these idealized
excuses perfectly suffice. But the truth of the matter is that this type
of behavior on the part of the pigs is acceptable exactly because that
is how the police keep the oppressed in check. These types of abuses are
not isolated incidents, but institutionalized practices that are part
and parcel to maintaining white power in the United $tates.
To the Chican@ nation this type of police brutality is nothing new,
isolated or particular to New Afrikans. Rather it is part of reality for
the oppressed of the Chican@ nation and any other internal semi-colony.
For those of us growing up in the 80s and 90s in the ghettos and barrios
of Amerika this was certainly a daily possibility, especially whenever
we dared to venture out the hood and into or near the settler
communities.
Integration into the consumer economy via labor aristocracy wages has
brought privilege for the oppressed within U.$. borders via the stolen
super-profits and cheap abundant goods from the periphery. But the
reality of imperial dominance cannot be negated by class relations as
they continue to be modified by national interests and the principal
contradiction: imperialism vs. the oppressed nations. Leave it to the
apologists for national oppression in Amerika, the post-modernist
theorists and other petty-bourgeois intellectuals who would have us
think that we’ve reached some type of “post-racialism” and that
therefore it’s ok to paint oneself in black-face for example, or dress
up as your favorite Latino stereotype for Halloween because “race”
relations in the United $tates have never been better. And the hystory
of segregation is better forgotten. Yes “race” relations in the United
$tates have changed profoundly, but let’s not get it twisted,
segregation was ended and civil rights were won exactly because of the
strong national liberation movements and the threat of armed struggle
that underlined the Black, Chican@, Boriqua and First Nation power
movements of the 1960s and 70s. What humyn dignity we have today is not
owed to concessions and benevolence on the part of the oppressor nation
and their power structure. Rather they are rights won by revolutionaries
and masses before us; as there are no “rights,” only power struggles.
Pigs almost always walk away with a slap on the wrist for abuses of
power and attempted murder incidents such as the one in New Mexico, so
let’s not start believing that just because that shooting was caught on
video it’s gonna mean a conviction equaling the ones doled out to the
Black and Brown in North America on a daily basis. If we want justice,
we better go get justice and not expect it’s gonna be given to us.
Much has been said recently about the overtly racist remarks made by one
of the contestants on the “Big Brother” reality show. Viewers were
shocked at the nerve of some of the show’s participants, not only in the
fact that they would say such things, but in the contestants’ blatantly
unapologetic attitude afterwards. After all, this is the 21st century,
and according to some, we have moved beyond those inconsistencies in
Amerika’s past which had previously kept her from fulfilling the promise
of its ethos. Most Amerikans (white people in particular) like to
believe that although things like slavery and segregation are all a part
of our nasty past we should all just forget and move on from this
shameful hystory. Surely the United $tates has made great strides when
it comes to “race relations,” and Amerikans of all colors have never
experienced a more collective prosperity than they do today, never mind
the previously unthinkable: a Black man in the White House.
So why then does racism continue to exist? More importantly, how do we
eradicate it? To properly answer these questions we must take it back to
where it all began, and for this we’ll have to revisit some ugly truths.
Origins of Racism: Connections to Capitalism
People forget that Amerika is a nation of settlers founded on genocide,
slavery and annexation. This oppressive nation-building formula includes
the more subtle forms of national oppression and the many different ways
they are institutionalized and manifested in our society. One
particularly malevolent form of national oppression, which most of us
are all too familiar with, is of course racism and the more pernicious
racial ideology from which it stems. But racism isn’t simply some
oppressive philosophical dogma utterly disconnected from the real world.
Rather, racism and racial ideologies are direct products of national
oppression, which is engendered by society based on property relations
and the division of labor produced therein, which in turn has influenced
how humyn beings have come to interact with each other in the struggle
between the global “haves” and “have nots.” In short, racism has not
been around forever. As a matter of fact, the very concept of “race”
didn’t even exist prior to the 16th century. Racism and racial
ideologies have only been around so long as capitalism itself has been
around. The concept of “race” developed alongside the rise of modern
society and not as usually believed as a remnant of the irrational and
dark Middle Ages. What’s more, the concept of “race” has been directly
linked back to the primitive accumulation phase of capitalism, which is
itself grounded in the first rape and plunder of Africa and the
Americas. This primitive accumulation phase is clearly explained by
radical eco-feminist and author Maria Mies when she stated that:
“Before the capitalist mode of production could establish and maintain
itself as a process of extended reproduction of capital - driven by the
motor of surplus value production - enough capital had to be accumulated
to start this process. The capital was largely accumulated in the
colonies between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Most of the
capital was not accumulated by merchant capitalists but largely by way
of brigandage, piracy, forced and slave labor.”(1) And furthermore, “One
could say that the first phase of the primitive accumulation was that of
merchant and commercial capital ruthlessly plundering and exploiting the
colonies’ human and natural wealth…”(1)
What should be kept in mind here is that as feudalism disintegrated
and capitalism came on the scene the common people, the peasants and the
soldiers, needed to be reassured that what they were doing to the people
of the colonies was not only in the beneficiary population’s interest
but the interest of the colonized as well. The European masses also
needed to be taught that the colonized were less than humyn so as to
discourage any feelings of solidarity amongst the oppressed. Hence, the
racial ideology was borne, which wasn’t just about the innate ignorance
and stupidity of the colonized, but of their innate treacherousness and
savagery as well.
Examples of Racism in National Oppression, Yesterday and Today
Racism as a building block for the rise of the modern western world was
as indispensable for that society as it is to the continuing subjugation
of nations and the integrity of the First World today. Testimony to this
is the way that the people of Islam have been demonized as “dark” and
“backward” by the “civilized” west who sees itself as “exceptional.”
Thus the role that racism has played in gaining public support for the
current wars of conquest is undeniable. One need only examine how
Muslims, who were Amerikan citizens, were vilified and attacked by
settler violence following the retaliatory attack on the World Trade
Center and the Pentagon under the guise of “Amerikan Patriotism.” The
conscious connection of these actions to the collective white history of
colonialism in Africa is manifested in the term “sand nigger.” What this
“Amerikan Patriotism” really translates into is a special brand of
oppressor nation chauvinism, and a vehicle for white power in the 21st
century. It is particularly popular and appealing to Latin@s and New
Afrikans who think they can fully integrate into Amerika by becoming
agents of imperialism and uniting with the oppressor against the people
of the Third World.
Therefore the revolutionary character of militant Islam, seen when it is
waging war for the independence of Muslims from U.$. imperialism, should
be supported by the oppressed nation lumpen as it is objectively an
anti-imperialist struggle despite the reactionary views of those leading
the struggles, whether it’s Al Qaeda or Bashar al-Assad and their
associates, for it weakens, disintegrates and undermines imperialism.
The struggle of the West and their “democratic” running dogs in the
region strengthen the victory of imperialism. Real communists know that
there are only two sides to a battle, therefore it is our duty to unite
all who can be united in the camp of the oppressed and build a United
Front against the imperialists and their racist backers! In his day,
Stalin had to combat those promoting a “third way” between the socialist
camp and the imperialists, pointing out that those who broke away from
the Soviet Union inherently joined the imperialist system, becoming
victims of it. The lack of a socialist camp today does not change the
bankruptcy of the third-way idealists. Revisionists today point to the
forces waging war in the Middle East and call them the “Two Outmodeds”
and are peddling a third way out for the oppressed. However, this third
way out is itself reactionary and anti-revolutionary, and if upheld will
in fact reinforce the very same imperialist structure it pretends to be
against, by weakening national unity of the oppressed. This is one
lesson we take from the theory and practice of United Front in the
Chinese war of liberation against Japan.
Racism as Pseudo-Science and Glossing Over of the National Question
Purveyors of racial ideology fancy themselves as being backed by
science, and indeed there is a “science” to racism, it’s called eugenics
and it stresses the genetic makeup of people as determinant of their
“natural” abilities and inclinations. Eugenics was developed as
justification for the oppression and enslavement of non-white people and
outlaws alike. It was, however, thoroughly criticized and debunked by
the wider scientific community for, among other things, not being an
objective and quantifiable method of analysis of the humyn species.
While most people today have hardly heard of eugenics it was certainly
popular back when England had stretched the tentacles of the British
empire (forerunner to U.$. imperialism) all over the Third World, while
here in Amerika the slave owning south was likewise using it for the
continuing oppression and enslavement of the New Afrikan nation.
The lack of scientific relationship to biology since there is only the
human race.
The creation of categories of inferior and superior based on arbitrary
characteristics and definitions.
The creation and perpetuation of a system of oppression of the
“inferior” group in all aspects.
The re-enforcement of a relative differential in treatment - and it’s
ideological justification between those considered inferior and those
considered superior.
The use of race as a principal means for social control.
Rendering irrelevant the experience and viewpoint of the subordinated
population except and insofar as interpreted by dominant populations.
This specifically has been applied to African descendants, Indigenous
peoples, Asians, and Latinos, those usually referred to as “people of
color.”(2)
Author Bill Fletcher, to whom the above is attributed, explains:
“Race is, then, not a state of mind, but a socio-political reality. Even
though there is no scientific basis for race, it occupies a real space
and the institutions of the racial-capitalist society reinforce this
reality every day.”(2)
We’d also add that the false concept of “race” is a social construct
originally based on power struggles between humyns in the pre-capitalist
era of slavery, and it has done much to gloss over the fact that the
oppressed internal nations of Chican@s and New Afrikans are separate
nations from the Amerikan nation (white settler-state), with separate
hystories distinctly their own. Therefore we speak of nations and
nationalities where most people speak of “race,” in order to refer to a
group of people who share a common language, culture, territory and
economy. The concept of nations is thus more accountable to hystory and
is firmly grounded in material reality. (See “Marxism and the National
Question” by J.V. Stalin.)
Methods for Resolving the Principal Contradiction
Despite the fact that the concept of race has been repeatedly disproven,
proponents of racial ideology and the national oppression it engenders
(and vice versa) hold steady to their un-scientific beliefs. And to a
certain extent this is fine. They have their beliefs and prejudices, but
we have science! We know where they stand and we know that the oppressed
people of the world will not sit idly by but will take up armed struggle
against the imperialists to impose the will of the people on today’s
oppressor nations. What isn’t fine however are the so-called allies of
the oppressed nations within the Amerikan “Left” who mistakenly call
themselves communist yet go about espousing the concept of “race.”
Whether they are speaking about the common cause of all the “races” that
are equally oppressed by capitalism-imperialism, or whether they are
agitating around the “race issue” here in Amerika, they’re of no great
help. They are immediately caught in the irrevocable trap of idealism,
and that is no attitude for a communist to have. First, these idealists
objectively hurt the revolutionary movement within U.$. borders by
elevating the problem of “race” to that of principal contradiction when
in fact there is no problem of race. There is a problem of imperialism
and national oppression. Secondly, they deny that the principal
contradiction is imperialism vs. the oppressed nations by emphatically
denying that there are any other nations in the United $tates besides
Amerika. Some have opportunistically come to acknowledge New Afrika,
while denying other nations’ existence, not because they are dialectical
materialists, but because they’re focused on pulling numbers to their
side. Lastly, by denying the concept of nations and national liberation
and instead focusing on multi-racial unity they deny the theories and
practice of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin and Mao, as well as the
revolutionary movements they spearheaded and the many national
liberation movements that followed in their traditions.
Racism in the United $tates or any other place in the world will not be
wiped from the earth solely by educating it out of existence, but by
getting rid of the many material conditions and relations from which it
springs. Racism is a product of national oppression, hence we must focus
on uniting the oppressed nations for their own liberation from this
jailhouse of nations that is the United $tates. Only then will we
seriously be able to talk about combatting racism as a backward idea
from another period of history.
Just as the oppressed communities are racially profiled as the garbage
pits of society that breeds and houses criminals, we prisoners are
racially profiled in practically a similar, if not a more blatant
extreme. The powers that govern and operate the U.S. Prison Colonies,
have catapulted measures that are atypically designed to target
prisoners, and criminalize their behavior in relation to belonging to a
disruptive prison gang, in particular, those prisoners who are
descendants of Afrikan/Mexican origin. They target those prisoners who
have demonstrated the capacity of independent thought process
(non-conformity), or those who are believed to be some kind of shot
caller, with influence over a particular group of prisoners. The
independent thought process itself that will enable prisoners to become
conscious of the injustices that are perpetrated on a regular basis
behind these walls, and so they are considered a threat.
This criminalization is called “The Validation Process.” Prisoners in
the SHU (Security Housing Units) at Pelican Bay State Prison, in
Kalifornia, have been validated as criminals belonging to a prison gang,
for some of the most idiotic reasons. From saying good morning to a
fellow prisoner, to signing a fellow prisoner’s get well card for a sick
relative, or a loved one. But the most ridiculous reason of them all is
the administration paying three collaborating informants to say that you
belong to a prison gang! Usually you’ve never even met this paid rat, or
only may have by chance possibly shared the same breakfast table with
him one morning, or looked at him in a manner that he did not appreciate
one afternoon. But yet, the burden of reliability is given to the paid
rat automatically, prior to the actual examination of facts. The
courts/society are practically lulled to sleep in the midst of this
madness, as the U.S. Prison Colony officials have planted the seed in
them, that their means of action is just, and required, in the interest
of protecting the safety/security of the institution. That’s nonsense!
As per Pelican Bay State Prison’s own policies, a gang member is one who
is consciously, and knowingly promoting criminal activities for a
particular gang. Over 75% of the prisoners housed in the SHU at PBSP are
being housed on an indefinite basis as allegedly belonging to a prison
gang, but have not committed one rule infraction.
MIM(Prisons) adds: This writer exposes the use of
control
units for social control in Amerikan prisons. This system of
isolation for control has a
long
history in the Amerikan criminal injustice system. Demonstrated to
cause both severe mental and physical damage to humyns, this long-term
solitary confinement is nothing less than torture. The recent
prisoner
hunger strike in California was initiated by prisoners demanding
change to the rules behind SHU lockup and improvements to the conditions
in the SHU. Conditions are so bad that prisoners are literally wiling to
die to fight for change. The importance of control units, as this writer
describes, is control of leaders and politically conscious prisoners.
This is not about criminal activity, it is about stopping prisoners from
spreading consciousness. Many of those targeted for the SHU are actually
promoting peace among prisoners, organizing different sets to get
together to fight the injustice system. The prisoncrats know this is the
real threat to the system.
October 18 - The Utah Supreme Court overturned an injunction that had
barred almost 500 people that Weber County claims are members of a
lumpen organization known as the Ogden Trece from associating with each
other. Members were banned from driving, standing, walking, sitting,
gathering or in any way appearing together anywhere in a 25-square-mile
area that covered most of the city of Ogden. It also imposed a curfew
between 11pm and 5am for these folks. This ban has been in place since
2010.
The Supreme Court threw out the injunction on a legal technicality,
because the county failed to properly serve summons to members of the
organization. The county posted notices on a Utah legal notices website
and in the Ogden Standard Examiner, a local newspaper. The court found
this to be insufficient notice. Members of the organization also
challenged the constitutionality of the injunction in denying their
right to associate, but the Court did not rule on this challenge.
The Deputy Attorney for Weber County made a case for the injunction:
“Case loads on average going from 16 per month on something like
graffiti down to four. So we can show a 75 percent drop in criminal
street gang activity.” This is an interesting definition of “criminal
street gang activity”: acts of graffiti.(1) Clearly the police and
courts are determined to go after this lumpen organization, which they
call a “public nuisance,” civil liberties and rights be damned.
We see a lot of parallels between validation in prison and
identification as a member of a street organization in Ogden. According
to the Ogden Gang Detective Anthony Powers, the police keep a “gang
database” to document who belongs to a street organization. There are
eight possible criteria, and anyone meeting two of them is entered in
the database. A musician in a group that includes people believed to be
Ogden Trece members was included in the injunction because he has been
seen around with these folks.(2)
We only have news of this from the mainstream press, but we regularly
see this same repression of oppressed nations both in prisons and on the
streets. The trick of labeling someone a member of a lumpen organization
is used to lock prisoners in solitary confinement and keep them from
having contact with other prisoners. It’s often used to target
politically active prisoners. On the streets, whether in Utah or any
other state, we are seeing that Amerikans, who are often willing to
suspend constitutional rights for prisoners, are similarly unconcerned
about this same practice on the streets.
We know that street organizations, just like prison organizations, are a
natural result of imperialist society in the United $tates. The
oppressed nations are going to come together in self-defense, and in the
absence of revolutionary leadership they will join whatever group meets
their needs. While lumpen organizations are fighting one another and
targeting their people for street crime they are helping the
imperialists. This is why we work so hard to build a United Front and
bring these groups together for the betterment of all oppressed people.
We mourn the death of
Herman
Wallace, one of the Angola Panthers. Herman died on Friday after a
judge threw out his case, as a result Herman was able to die outside of
prison. The fact that Herman was held the longest in solitary
confinement – approximately 40+ years, speaks of the history of torture
in U.S. prisons.
For many of us Herman is much more than simply a prisoner who was held
in the hole for decades. He co-founded the first prison chapter of the
Panthers, and spent his time in prison serving the people. He dedicated
his life behind the prison walls to educating people, ending the
hostilities surrounding prisoner-on-prisoner crime and fighting guard
brutality. For his determination to liberate his people he was framed
for a crime in an attempt to neutralize him by sealing him in a cage for
decades.
Herman refused to surrender and he was an example to other oppressed
prisoners to resist even in the dungeon. This example was too much for
the state and he was denied compassionate release by the oppressors. His
liver cancer is also suspect, we know the state has many dirty tricks in
its arsenal. But Herman, like others who rise up in prison, understood
that he might in the end pay with his life for this resistance.
It has been reported in the press that Herman’s last words were to the
effect of “I am free” before he died. But Herman was already free, he
was free while still in prison because he had liberated his mind decades
ago, and this was his real crime that the state was making him pay for.
Had Herman been a drug addict prisoner who preyed on other prisoners for
a cellphone from the pigs or for a sack of dope he would never have
spent over four decades in solitary confinement. Freedom comes from
one’s actions and this is something that the petty bourgeoisie does not
grasp and so they will never be free.
Those of us here in the SHU understand that at any time we can be free
from torture by simply making up information on someone or debriefing.
But like Herman many cannot fathom doing this to another human being and
instead choose to build our nation and RESIST! And for this we are also
met with torture. But like Herman we are also free, more free than many
people on the outside whose minds are in many ways more chained than SHU
prisoners. May the example of resistance displayed by Herman live on in
U.S. prisoners!
Lots of attention is being given to counting prisoners in the political
arena, why?
Because census counts add prisoner population numbers to the community
where the prison is located, more and more incarcerated inner city
residents are being used to strengthen the economically weak areas of
rural Amerika. More prisoners means more jobs, more government money and
more political power.
Prisons, which were once eschewed have become a boom for many small
towns. Cheap land and willing residents make these isolated communities
the perfect location for this country’s growing number of human
warehouses.
Census numbers determine such things as highway funding, fire stations,
hospitals, medicaid, foster care, rehab-services, schools and parks just
to name a few. Most of these benefits will never be seen by prisoners.
Prisoners are a lucrative commodity in the census game.
State officials are quick to cite the benefits of prisons in
economically depressed communities. Government aid, indigent medical
care, energy assistance, and revenue sharing are just a few of the
selling points.
The majority of the nation’s prison population is either Black or
Latino. Locating these unwilling residents in a small, predominantly
white towns fundamentally shifts the balance of political power through
the redistricting process. It is not just federal money that follows us
out of our community, it is political power as well.
MIM(Prisons) adds: This prison-based gerrymandering is a problem
that has been extensively documented by the
Prison Policy
Institute who explain: “The Bureau counts incarcerated people as
residents of the towns where they are confined, though they are barred
from voting in 48 states and return to their homes after being released.
The practice also defies most state constitutions and statutes, which
explicitly state that incarceration does not change a residence.”
Unlike the PPI, we don’t prioritize the fight to change the Census
Bureau policies. The push for reform is insidious in the implication
that we can improve capitalist democracy to make elections and
government programs actually serve the people. But this is a good
example of the hidden forms of white power that are executed through the
state to this day in 2013. While oppressed nations are
disproportionately disenfranchised of the vote in Amerikan democracy,
white communities use these prisoners to skew financial resources away
from the oppressed nations to themselves. This, of course, is only
possible because of national oppression earlier on in the process where
law enforcement targets oppressed nation communities, while drug use in
white communities goes on with little interference. Such types of
oppression and manipulation are inherent in a capitalist system.