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.
My celly and myself formed a small coalition between my brothers and his
brothers, red, blue, white, even hispanics to speak out against the
administration (the real enemy) about their abuse of power and their
negligence. We strategically created conversation and before you know it
the whole housing unit was in an uproar. We had planted the seed. Now,
without organization, we tend to turn our anger and frustrations into
violence and destruction, which is a losing battle. So, we pushed that
pen, which turned out to be mightier and more effective than the sword.
We wrote Administrative Remedy Procedures (ARP), the Inmate Grievance
Office (IGO), the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services
(DPSCS), commissioners, the Deputy Secretary of Operations, and even the
Governor, Larry Hogan, himself.
The issues we raise weren’t addressed, so we’re still waiting for
responses. But regardless if we’re denied any relief and we are aware of
those possibilities, we created a solid peaceful foundation for unity
and realized who the real oppressors are. So as long as we support each
other’s positive causes we are making forward progress, in the opposite
direction of negativity. One step at a time!
Some brothers feel we won’t get any relief because the administration do
what they want. So I ask them, “if they ain’t giving us this and taking
that already, how is filing complaints and grievances and them not
giving us any relief hurting?” “They doing what they want without so
much as an inklet of rebuttal, so how do you lose writing them up?” Then
I wait… No response.
MIM(Prisons) responds: Elsewhere in this issue of ULK the
point is raised that leading includes showing victories, and not just
talking about them.
Committed revolutionaries know that building a movement strong enough to
end oppression worldwide is a huge task that takes years and years, and
we’re going to have lots of small failures along the way. But when
building with new recruits, we need to be careful to not lead them down
a dead end, in a way that discourages them and undermines unity
building. Building initial interest should be energizing. It should
inspire people.
At the same time, we can use our organizing defeats as opportunities for
education. As this writer is doing, creating a foundation for unity and
clarifying who are the real oppressors is a victory in and of itself.
But we should be clear with people that there’s a good chance we won’t
win grievances. This doesn’t mean the time was wasted, because we’ve put
the administration on notice that we won’t take their bullshit lying
down. Where we anticipate few victories we need to think creatively
about how to inspire people to action and help them understand how this
work fits into the larger struggle so that movement building is a
victory in and of itself.
Being a recent student participant of an on-site college program, I
heard about Grit via my psychology professor, who really sold the
book as “the best work of its kind” in his lifetime. He was an
abnormally straight shooter, and over the spring semester he gained a
high level of respect from me and several Gods attending his classes.
That being said when I read the title I became ecstatically interested
in reading it. To make things 1000% better ULK sent a request
that asked me to direct a selected few ideas from the book’s chapters,
repurpose the information in a way that makes it useful for prisoners
and prisoner movements.
Taking Grit to the cipher those last days of Ramadan provided the
forum that I used to gain opinions from the Gods here. First it was
introduced and the purpose was established as to what I was planning to
do within our cipher with regards to the book. It was agreed that we
would give light to its reading, our interpretation of the book
knowledge as it regards the prisoner movements (meaning unified actions
of prisoners between different lumpen orgs, religious orgs, racial
groups and at times including sexually non-conformist groups).
Once that was the base of our collective understanding, we read the very
first part out loud in its entirety, without stop. This was done in
order to gain a clear mental picture of what the author, Dr. Angela
Duckworth, wanted us to know: How she defined “grit.” Her purpose for
writing this book. How this information could be used (individually, as
a group, systematically, as a tool of help or to exploit). Lastly we
brainstormed on whether the subject was new, unique or reminiscent of
other books any of us read.
This was all done on day one. It included reading the preface along with
chapters 1-5, checking the dictionary and thesaurus for words we either
didn’t understand or had different definitions for. This was to ensure
we all stayed on the same page until a full grasp of the work was gained
(or as we say, the who, what, when, where, how and why). Once that’s
gained then each God can go back to the cell and reflect on what is
being said versus what the author’s voice is trying to persuade the
reader of. Because of lockdowns we didn’t come back together again for
some time. In that time I made 6 copies of the book and hand delivered
the copies to each member of the cipher. I read ahead because of these
time restraints for my response for ULK to be ready for this 63rd
issue.
The subjects that I found applicable to the prisoners and prisoners’
movement’s need to develop grittier comrades on the front lines are from
the Part II chapters: Interest, Practice, and Purpose.
Using “the grit test” [a questionnaire measuring someone’s passion and
perseverence - ULK Editor], we can discriminate in positive ways to
create better recruiting methods when it comes to bringing individuals
into the inner communal cipher or cadre. This will change the qualities
that community leadership uses to identify like-minded soldiers. Though
most will have to use interview methods instead of written
questionnaires, and questions will have to be asked again and again in
different ways before confirmation can be made.
The study habits and increasing interest in each member’s confidence
in sharing these interpretations of studied materials must become the
job of all in leadership, with little to no critique at first and high
praises to study habits and being able to communicate ideas in their own
voice.
Standing up to injustice must be celebrated. Especially in times they
are made to suffer by the authorities for doing the righteous and
self-respecting thing – which is the institution’s systematic way of
pushing said prisoner to believe they are powerless. This is the
creation of the passive prisoner who just puts up with all levels of
abuse from authority. To fight this mental bullying the leadership must
celebrate the comrade’s actions openly with high energy. Leadership must
show and prove they are willing to suffer some loss if and when making a
stand causes such losses – a united front plus true knowledge of where
the cadre stands on issues by actions, not just theory or talk-based
instruction.
Grit is made of both passion and perseverance, creating and maintaining,
stick-wit-it-ness, evolving interest and deep commitment. As opposed to
natural skill, know-how or raw talent which may or may not assist in
being a success. Comrades, being grittier means overcoming obstacles,
learning from defeats and setbacks, and never allowing them to define
who you are nor the movement. Remembering effort is worth twice as much
as talent.
Example: Recently myself and eleven other political prisoners attempted
to establish a self-introspection help program. At the beginning the
administration acted positively about allowing the program to have a
pilot try, yet once we got a free body volunteer to facilitate our group
the administration changed its decision. This forced me to educate
myself on group creation, rules of submittal and how to get sponsored
state-wide, which I’m currently in the process of doing. The lesson is:
don’t stop at the first (or second or third…) signs of resistance.
Interest
This chapter was organizational gold when clearly understood. Leaders
please pay close attention to each comrade’s passions within your cadre
or cipher, with even more emphasis on possible new members in relation
to the struggles the cadre is immersed in. Understand what each person
is passionate about, issues they will be more able to persevere through
any pushback or reprisal.
Besides that, knowing each person’s passions and convictions helps to
know what position everyone is good at and areas they need assistance
developing, which can be introduced in creative, fun ways, then
incentivized through recognition and praise for gradual growth in areas
of difficulty.
Example: Say a comrade is uncomfortable communicating their ideas
publicly. This problem is amplified when the COs are involved to the
point this comrade doesn’t assert his legal rights nor is he respected
as a man in the righteous way. Leadership must cultivate these skills in
members who have difficulties related to these identifiable areas. The
“you spoke really well” type or “the way you used those descriptors in
the last essay was golden, so please continue to develop those skills”
type of recognition and praise. I call it fanning the flames of passion,
then directing the flames of progress and confidence among comrades.
Practice
Practice is something all gritty people have in common. You’ve heard the
saying “practice builds perfection.” Well after reading this chapter I
must take it even further. Without practice as a united front executing
plans in concert, you don’t know how to work as one body. This will
create the “big me and little yous,” or followers resentment. Learn to
practice making decisions together by hearing everyone involved out,
allow each person the opportunity to lead in every activity. Practice
writing write-ups, working out as a group, being inclusive as much as
possible. This will make the cadre able to operate even when separated.
The author’s research shows that this kind of practice must be done in
association with a positive state of mind related to the balance of
quantity and quality of time spent in skill development. We must also
seek out new creative ways of practice in direct relation to the
top-level goal. Formal repetition and fun activities loosely associated
to goals are also useful tools.
Examples: Getting our comrades to rap in the cipher, incorporating
subjects, words, ideas related to the group’s mission may help them
develop a public speaking style, confidence in speaking these opinions,
and help them be more connected to positive public communication as a
way to handle issues. Another more formal method is reading and
discussing essays with the group, both on the yard and in closed room
settings.
Purpose
ULK readers this may be the most important thing to learn about
in this whole book with regards to prisoner movements and issues that
create the necessity for a more inclusive united front. This author
makes the definition of “purpose” more than the passion of the moment.
Purpose is also the intention to contribute to the well-being of others.
The balance of both is what is needed in these occasions and is found in
all the grittiest revolutionaries.
The comrades that feel they were born to live and die for the people are
of such destiny-driven molds where this quality is found, manifested and
acted out. These people are rare and even when they reach the stage of
public awareness they are usually murdered by one of the system’s arms
of imperial aggression. Purposeful Revolutionaries must be supported by
the people and understood by their peers as the magnetic all-inspiring
super-motivation-drivers that they are. When unity is necessary these
forces of nature will bring organization.
Example: Huey P. Newton, co-founder of the BPP was placed inside prison
for a shootout with the police, and he was railroaded the first trial.
The whole country polarized over this miscarriage of injustice creating
one of the most supported appeals California had ever seen. “Free Huey”
was the call, Black Power was the purpose, and the results are
revolutionary history and the thing of legends.
MIM(Prisons) responds: Thanks to this comrade for reviewing
Grit from the perspective of a revolutionary anti-imperialist
prisoner organizer. We also studied the book and found lessons we can
draw from it for our own work. We can’t summarize them all here, but
will respond to some points in the review above and emphasize what we
see as the most important points from the book. (Grit is
available from MIM(Prisons) for $10 or equivalent work-trade.)
We are hesitant to take any of the studies in Grit as
representing humyn nature itself. As with all bourgeois psychology, the
studies were conducted under conditions of imperialism. So we don’t know
if they’re absolute representations of how humyns’ minds work. But since
we’re also organizing under imperialist conditions, the studies do apply
to our present conditions.
Throughout Grit, the author uses scientific studies and also case
studies of “paragons of grit” – people who have reached pinnacles of
performance in their jobs. This is one place where Duckworth’s bourgeois
perspective shines brightly. The book opens with a study of the most
elite forces in the U.$. military, and jumps from athletes to musicians
to chemists. The only mention of a socialist hero is when Duckworth puts
Joseph Stalin’s name right next to Adolf Hitler’s. Ey admits Stalin had
grit, but also that ey was “misguided” and “prove[s] that the idea of
purpose can be perverted.” In our communist version of Grit we
would include case studies of not only Stalin, but also Mao Zedong,
George Jackson, Stanley Tookie Williams, Assata Shakur, and the tens of
thousands of people who participated in the over-5,000-mile Long March
in China in the 1930s.
Regarding the grit test, we caution against using it as a measure of who
should be allowed into our movement. It can be a tool for assessing
where people need development, and how much we could count on them to
follow through in this moment. But Duckworth emphasizes strongly
that grit can grow. In fact, Chapter 5 is titled “Grit Grows,” Part II
is titled “Growing Grit from the Inside Out” and Part III is titled
“Growing Grit from the Outside In.” There are many interventions we can
use to increase the grit of our cadre. And building our own and our
comrades’ committment and perserverence should be our focus. The grit
test may be useful for measuring if we’re improving our abilities to
build grit in others, but should not be limiting who can participate.
USW7 outlines above the importance of group practice, and we also want
to add the importance of individual development for improvement.
Elsewhere in this issue of ULK we lay out the guidelines for
deliberate practice. The group mentality is important, but we can’t rely
on it for our development. Kevin Durant summarizes the ratio by saying
ey spends 70% of eir time practicing alone. Both are necessary.
Besides our ability to grow grit, one of the most important points
Duckworth makes in Grit is that effort counts twice.
Duckworth warns us against being distracted by talent, or assuming that
one’s skills are dictated by talent. Talent plays a part, but without
effort, one’s talent won’t develop into skill. And without
effort, one’s skill won’t develop into achievement. People who
have less talent certainly surpass those with more talent in their
achievements. They do this with effort. The ability to put in
effort even in spite of repression, setbacks, failures… that is
grit.
I’m writing because I have received my first issue of ULK, and I
am going to tell you about how I became who I am, and what I am. It
started in 2010 at South Central Correctional Center with a brother by
the name of Supreme. At that time I was 21 years old and didn’t want to
hear a thing from no one cause I thought, “you can say what you want but
it don’t mean a thing if you can’t show it.” I never used to listen to
nothing until he started talking to me and on top of that he was showing
it to me. So I can see that it was true.
Once I started to see what he was showing it all came to me and I said
to myself “this is a brother I can believe and count on when I’m in
need, and need help against the pigs.” Because at that time I was having
problems with the pigs and they were giving me hell back to back and I
didn’t know what to do about it. He saw it and started helping me and
showing me how to go at it with them. I saw what he was showing me was
working, so now I’m a believer. He’s an older brother and I respect him
a lot for what he did.
I have had a lot of guys tell me things and couldn’t show it. They say
“look at the message and not the messenger,” but sometimes the message
don’t mean a thing if you can’t show it. I had a guy tell me one day,
“yeah man we all should write some letters to people outside. I don’t
think it’s gonna work but we can do it anyway.” See! That right there
told me a lot, that he didn’t even believe what the fxxk he was saying,
so why should I believe that would work?
Now I listen to the ones that show and tell and I make sure I do the
same. I never feed anyone bull because I don’t let anyone feed me bull.
And I have a lot of brothers that show and tell. One, a political
prisoner, does a lot to help all of the brothers that he can. So I give
a lot of love to brothers like him and Supreme.
I liked the whole issue of ULK 62 for May/June and I am letting a
lot of other brothers read it too. I have read some of your ULKs
in the past but I never had a chance to write to you guys and it seemed
like noone ever heard of your paper. I realized that there are a lot of
guys in prison that are not doing their job, the job of educating other
brothers. So now that is why we have a lot of b.s. where everyone is
against each other. We see this again and again in all of Missouri
prisons. I don’t know everything, and I’m still learning, but as I go on
I try my best to help all of the other real brothers gain knowledge.
I know just as well as you know that we have a lot of guys that are
faking and trying to bring the movement down working with the pigs. I
can tell you a lot of dudes don’t like me because I tell it like it is
and I don’t hold nothing back for no one. A lot of these guys are just
all talk, they act like they are something they are not, but see they
don’t like that I’m about all of that and some, I practice what I
preach. I want to help all of the brothers that I can and I mean it and
I show it too. So guys don’t like me because I show and tell for real! I
want to thank you at MIM(Prisons) for your time and allowing me the
chance to talk with you all and the reading material you all send me to
help me more. I’m still growing.
Keep on fighting the fight, never give up. To all the brothers and
sisters of the struggle: a warrior never gives up. Freedom is what we
make it.
MIM(Prisons) responds: This article is especially interesting to
us because it’s easy for such a long-term project as ours to sound like
what this comrade is criticizing above. “[W]e all should write some
letters to people outside. I don’t think it’s gonna work but we can do
it anyway.”
We write letters to prison administrators to defend our right to send
prisoners our literature, and a lot of the time it doesn’t go anywhere.
We run the grievance campaign, and often times we’re just sent in
circles between the Inspector General, Ombudsman, and the warden. But
we’re not discouraged. We already have strategic confidence in our work,
because we’ve studied enough history to know that what we’re doing today
will pay off in the long term. Engaging in the endless bureaucracy is
tolerable because we already understand how it relates to the big
picture.
However, this comrade’s skepticism underlines the importance of how we
recruit new people. Our strategy ultimately is to build unity and
confidence among the oppressed masses. Busy work (sending letters just
to send them) does not have this effect. Even if we don’t expect an
immediate positive response from admin, if people just see us as wasting
their time and resources, it’s going to discourage them even more and
cause them to distrust us.
Part of encouraging people is in picking battles that are winnable. Part
of it is in framing these battles as a piece of our larger struggle.
Part of it is in showing historical successes and broadening people’s
vision. And part of that is relating our goals to the perspective and
values of the people we’re attempting to recruit.
Within prisons we find ourselves confronted with multiple obstacles to
organizing efforts. Obstacles spanning from legal and material to
psychological and physical. Before we can even engage in political
activities we must confront these various road blocks, what I call
“walls” (barriers against activism and organizing).
Psychological walls manifest in two primary ways: 1) lack of receptivity
in conversations; and 2) perspectives of hopelessness. For prisoner
activists these are Goliathan problems. In the first instance you find
yourself talking to a brick wall. In the second your points may be
acknowledged as valid but still dismissed as useless opposition. A most
frustrating situation, because one – your words can not make an
impression; and two – your arguments prove valid but produce no effect.
In both cases real victories (read demonstrations) proving the validity
of arguments and feasibility of proposed actions is the surest method of
overcoming such obstacles. In the former, a prisoner sees the validity.
In the latter, a prisoner gains motivation. Even a small victory – a
granted grievance – is capable of advancing organizational efforts to be
heard and considered.
Material walls are next formidable in line. Including almost every
privilege extended to a prisoner and their financial security. Following
capitalist society, prisons use these privileges and financial control
to maintain leverage over prisoners’ behavior/thought. Furthermore, as
most prisoners are stuck in parasitic thinking in pursuit of a
capitalistic existence, such advantage creates a strong disinclination
towards jeopardizing them, even if it is in their best interests. As
with capitalism in general, there is no convenient nor easy answer that
can be applied with certainty. All prisoners’ privileges and financial
interests intensify identification with classism (antagonistic) and
capitalist priorities. Considering this, no general rules of approach
can be established as each’s interests influence differs. Fortunately,
every answer that can be applied can be approached on first, an
individual, then, group or demographic level, expanding in concentric
circles.
Legal and physical walls are less conspicuous; most prisoners view
political activity as futile. Still once activism gains momentum and
organizing becomes realistic, these last walls spring up. Within prisons
these signify various administrative “conveniences” (e.g., Ad-Seg, SHU,
MCU, punitive segregation, out-of-state transfer, and varied
movement/privilege/property/financial/communication restrictions or
other arbitrary sanctions). Outside of prisons, many courts conspire to
create so many legal formalities, exorbitant fees, byzantine procedures
and lopsided laws that most trained lawyers are bemused and at a loss.
For the prisoner who does survive such a crucible, pride is only the
beginning of the prize.
All in all these many walls constitute the primary, secondary and such
obstacles to organization behind bars. These difficulties should not be
taken as reasons to dissuade political action but rather, as motivation
to pursue these endeavors. Why else would there be so many protective
measures if activism and organizing were indeed useless? Once the
prisoner understands their interests in the matter these insurmountable
walls become merely constant annoyances necessary for progress and
material dialectical processes. Nothing worthy of having ever comes
easy. With greater obstacles comes a greater and more valuable prize.
Rise to such challenges, allowing your hunger for real equality to
increase along and as much as difficulties faced; if not more so.
This issue of Under Lock & Key is devoted to exploring
tactics in organizing behind bars. We often hear how hard it is to get
people interested in politics, how so many are just doing their time, or
worse, getting high, collaborating with the COs, or promoting division
among prisoners. But we also hear from comrades about organizing
successes. We can all learn from our own failures and successes and also
from other people’s failures and successes.
This scientific process of learning from practice, and using those
lessons to improve our practice, is key to moving our organizing work
forward. Marxism is based in this science that we call dialectics. Often
people talk about it in the context of deep political line. But
political line is only useful if it can direct a successful political
practice. And so, as we spread revolutionary ideas and organize against
the criminal injustice system, we need to pay attention to what works
and what doesn’t, both for us and for others. And then apply these
lessons to improving our own work. Without dialectics the revolutionary
movement will stagnate; with dialectics we will continue to learn and
grow.
In a few articles in this issue we highlight the work of a psychologist,
Angela Duckworth, who has conducted and compiled studies of how to
engage and inspire people in work and how to build expertise. Although
ey writes about this subject from the perspective of mastering bourgeois
work or hobbies, we find some of the techniques and information
presented to be directly applicable to revolutionary organizing. We
learn from scientific studies like those presented by Duckworth, along
with our own practice, to grow and improve our work.
Duckworth is an interesting psychologist because eir work focuses on
measuring what ey calls “personal qualities” or traits, but eir work
also demonstrates that these traits of a persyn can and do change over
time. And individuals and society can have an impact on developing
desired qualities. We agree with Duckworth on this assessment of the
ability of people to change and grow through both their own work and
external forces. In eir more recent works, Duckworth clearly agrees with
us that these “traits” are more a product of education and training than
inherent in one’s persynality. Duckworth’s writing is instructive as we
look for ways to improve our own dedication and effectiveness, and ways
to better inspire others.
MIM(Prisons), like MIM before it, has long maintained that the field of
psychology under imperialism is generally used to help people adjust to
their oppression and adapt to the horrible culture of imperialist
patriarchy. It is a counter-revolutionary weapon when used in this way.
Further, bourgeois psychology often attributes behaviors to inherent
traits instead of material circumstances and conditions, suggesting that
humyns can’t change. We don’t have the ability to run truly scientific
experiments on humyn nature, but we have a lot of evidence from
revolutionary societies like the Soviet Union under Lenin and Stalin,
and Communist China under Mao to suggest that humyns have a tremendous
capacity to learn and grow and overcome selfish individualism.
Instead of seeing the selfishness and individualism in capitalist
culture as reasons that humynity will “always” have oppression and
suffering, we see it as evidence of the importance of a Cultural
Revolution under socialism. This concept was executed on a mass scale in
China under Mao. The Cultural Revolution recognizes the need for the
people to vigilently fight against reactionary culture and capitalist
ideas, even after the proletariat controls the government, because
capitalist culture and individualism will not disappear overnight.
Of course in the end individualism and self-interest won out in those
countries when capitalism was restored. But this doesn’t negate the very
real changes that so many people made in revolutionary societies. We
look to these examples as hopeful evidence, while studying them for
improvements needed for better success in the future.
There are people in the fields of psychiatry (medical doctors) and
psychology (not medical doctors) who have taken their study of humyns in
a revolutionary direction, contributing to the anti-imperialist
movement. Frantz Fanon is an excellent example of a revolutionary
psychiatrist. Among eir revolutionary work, Fanon’s scientific studies
contributed greatly to our understanding of the effects of colonial
subjugation on the oppressed, and a broader study of the lumpen.
Duckworth is not revolutionary, or anti-capitalist, or anti-Amerikan,
and ey is still mired in some of the pitfalls of the field of capitalist
psychology. But eir research presents some useful concepts and
techniques for revolutionary organizing work. In this spirit of
scientific learning we touch on Duckworth’s work in this issue of
ULK.
We take action regardless of whether we will ultimately win or lose. We
take action simply because it is in our nature to resist injustice and
oppression. It is who we are. And we recognize that not everyone has
that same nature. We should not criticize or look down on those who
don’t have enough strength for this fight against the odds. After all,
oppression of the weak and unfortunate is the very thing we are
struggling against. So we hold no animosity towards the naysayers as
long as they do not directly interfere with our cause, and we are happy
when our actions benefit them even though they refused to participate.
People cannot help being the way they are. For those of us with the
revolutionary spirit the struggle comes as naturally as apathy and
passivity comes to those who refuse to participate.
But the truth is that we most definitely can make a difference. The
government and the TDCJ administration would like us to believe they are
all-powerful and can do whatever they want without concern for any
consequences, but that is just propaganda intended to make us give up
before we even start. We know this from experience because we have won
victories already. We have seen even just a handful of prisoners come
together many times and force the administration to improve conditions
or follow its own rules.
We know that just because our actions are ignored at first or because we
got a rubber stamp response on a grievance doesn’t mean it didn’t have
an effect. Everything has an effect and it all adds up. We recognize
that change in any area of life generally requires sustained action over
a long period of time. The pigs’ first line of defense is to keep us
ignorant and keep us discouraged, but we must know better than to fall
into those traps.
What we often see is prisoners coming together in a spontaneous uprising
when abuses reach a crisis point. The administration will quickly back
down and meet their demands. But then when this temporary mobilization
of the mass of prisoners falls apart, the administration incrementally
begins the same abuses all over again. If they overstep and the
prisoners mobilize themselves once more, then the administration just
repeats the process of backing down and incrementally reimposing the
same abuses. In this way they gradually accustom the prisoners to accept
the abuse of their rights and human dignity.
So another reason why we take action is simply to stay mobilized and
able to resist the incremental erosion of our rights. We don’t fool
ourselves about the possibility of keeping the whole mass of prisoners
fully mobilized. The majority will always care more about watching TV
and playing fantasy football. But there are also at least a few
prisoners who see revolutionary work as a way to pass the time that is
just as enjoyable and interesting, with the added benefit that it
actually gives them some real power over their circumstances. If we can
keep this core of dedicated revolutionaries organized and active at all
times, then we can put up constant resistance to the erosion of our
rights. And we will have an organizational framework and leadership
already in place that allows us to quickly mobilize the masses for some
larger project whenever it becomes necessary.
We know all this is an uphill battle, but we can take heart when we
study the past. In the broad sweep of history the course of events has
overwhelmingly been in our favor. The oppressors of the world have been
fighting a desperate retreat for the last thousand years, losing battle
after battle in the struggle for human rights. It is clear which way the
wind is blowing. And the struggle for prisoners’ rights fits squarely
within that larger struggle.
There will be a day in the not-so-distant future when people look back
with horror and shame at our current culture of mass incarceration and
the conditions in these prisons. And those who struggled for prisoners’
rights and reform of the criminal justice system will be grouped among
the heroes who fought to overcome absolutist monarchies, colonialism,
slavery, worker exploitation, racism, sexism, and every other form of
oppression. We can take action with absolute confidence that we are on
the right side of history. In the long run, we are assured of victory.
MIM(Prisons) responds: So much of what this author writes here
speaks directly to the value of perseverance in our work. The project of
building revolution (or making any great impact on the world) is made up
of many, many, many days of mundane tasks. Some days of excitement. And
many more days of mundane commitment.
In a debate on whether people are born as, or developed into,
revolutionaries, it seems like this author would argue the former. But
surely everyone who’s turned on to politics can also remember a time in
their life when they were apathetic and passive. Whether from an
incorrect understanding of how the world works, or a lack of faith in
our own ability to change and make change. At some time, probably over a
long time, we decided to stand up.
Well, how do people turn from only participating when there’s an acute
problem, to making that long-term commitment to building a revolution?
(Hint: it’s not a persynality trait we’re born with.)
Author and bourgeois psychologist Angela Duckworth says developing
interest and passion for your work (the type of passion that sticks it
out through the hard times) is made of “a little bit of discovery,
followed by a lot of development, and then a lifetime of deepening.”(1)
In the quote below Duckworth talks about “having fun” as part of
developing interest. While prisons certainly aren’t fun, we can apply
this concept to prisoners facing repression, where the “trigger” for
interest is repeated exposure to examples and experiences of resistance.
“Before hard work comes play. Before those who’ve yet to fix on a
passion are ready to spend hours a day diligently honing skills, they
must goof around, triggering and retriggering interest. Of course,
developing an interest requires time and energy, and yes, some
discipline and sacrifice. But at this earliest stage, novices aren’t
obsessed with getting better. They’re not thinking years and years into
the future. They don’t know what their top-level, life-orienting goal
will be. More than anything else, they’re having fun.”
“… [I]nterests are not discovered through introspection. Instead,
interests are triggered by interactions with the outside world. The
process of interest discovery can be messy, serendipitous, and
inefficient. This is because you can’t really predict with certainty
what will capture your attention and what won’t. You can’t simply will
yourself to like things, either. …”
“… [W]hat follows the initial discovery of an interest is a much
lengthier and increasingly proactive period of interest development.
Crucially, the initial triggering of a new interest must be followed by
subsequent encounters that retrigger your attention – again and again
and again.”
Just because someone is initially uninterested in the politics behind
the mass action, through repeated exposure and “retriggering interest,”
we can encourage them to go deeper. And after the initial interest is
sparked, Duckworth says deliberate practice, a sense of purpose, and a
hopeful attitude, are what enable us to commit and excel. These
approaches are what cause us to overcome the adversity that the author
describes in the article above, of administrative failures,
discouragement from staff, and even our own mistakes.
And Duckworh argues, based on eir decades of study, that these qualities
can be nurtured and developed – by individuals themselves, and by people
outside of those individuals. As organizers, we need to work to develop
interest, practice, purpose, and hope in others. In eir book
Grit, Duckworth lays out many methods to do this, some of which
we’ve touched on in other articles throughout this issue of ULK.
With this response, we primarily want to highlight that a revolutionary
fighting spirit is something that we can cultivate; just because someone
doesn’t have it now doesn’t mean they won’t ever have it. And it’s the
organizer’s job to make that process as successful as possible.
On 14 May 2018, after seven days of being on lockdown and receiving one
shower, 6 prisoners at the Colorado State Penitentiary (CSP) in the
Management Control Unit covered their windows in protest and demanded
they be given showers. The administration argued that they had been
taken off lockdown on May 12, and therefore were not due showers.
On May 12, the facility had been taken off lockdown for 10 minutes and
as soon as the doors opened multiple prisoners began fighting and the
facility immediately went back on lockdown not ten minutes later leaving
prisoners without a chance to take showers since May 10th. Colorado’s
policy is that prisoners get a chance to shower every 72 hours.
At CSP each tier has 8 cells housing one prisoner each, 2 tiers per pod
and 8 pods per unit. Six out of 8 prisoners all agreed to protest by
covering their windows. Rather than allow the prisoners the human
dignity of a shower, the cell extraction team was deployed, and a
chemical weapon known as FOXISPRA Jet Oleoresin Capiscum (O/C) spray was
applied. This caused several of the prisoners, including the author who
has respiratory issues and is “O/C restricted” yet was still sprayed, to
pass out. Apparently to Colorado DOC, being unconscious is considered
resting. As usual staff tailored the reports to fit their needs, each
prisoner was given disciplinary charges and monetary fines of $117, most
of which was for one time use items that should have been split six
different ways.
Sadly, the goal was not accomplished, however the 6 were allowed to
shower to remove the O/C spray. The bright side is that solidarity such
as this is on the rise in higher security prisons in Colorado, and this
story has been circulating around the facility with high regard.
MIM(Prisons) responds: Building unity around common oppression is
an important part of organizing behind bars. When people start to come
together to demand their basic rights, they also start to see the power
of this unity. Revolutionaries can build on this unity by helping folks
to see how these individual situations of oppression are tied to the
broader criminal injustice system. And making these connections we can
start talking about what we need to do to fight back on a broader scale.
Lots of people report their political awakening going back to persynal
experiences of oppression, coupled with revolutionaries helping them see
the ties to the broader system of oppression. United Struggle from
Within comrades can play this leadership role by starting from where
people are at and building with them.
Revolutionary greetings of love, dedication and resiliency to all
freedom fighters and fearless front line generals, soldiers and warriors
who dare to struggle and sacrifice for liberty, freedom and equality
from behind the walls, fences and cages of genocide and oppression. As
we continue to raise awareness and lift up our voices so that we may be
heard on the issues of systematic racism and economic exploitation in
the criminal justice system, as well as prison slavery, police killings
and brutality. We continue to see an evil and determined enemy dig in
its heels in the name of white supremacy.
I am a Missouri prisoner who has been imprisoned for 32 years. I am
educated with a paralegal degree. With my credentials, I have a legal
clinic of 10 comrades. We have taken it upon ourselves to do separate
booklets of individual civil complaints such as: censorship, religion,
cruel and unusual punishment (prison conditions) etc. We will be sending
those to MIM(Prisons) upon their completion. We have made censorship our
first priority, and already sent this one in to MIM(Prisons).
However, we only have an ex-amount of time in the law library, so we
have to copy case-law (hundreds of them) and take them back to our cells
and work on our booklets. Our resources are limited and we need help! So
if any of my comrades know of places that will send “unlimited” printed
caselaw to us, please contact MIM to pass the message on.
MIM(Prisons) responds: These comrades are setting an example of
how to make your work impact more than just one persyn. Many can benefit
from concise information on how to fight specific legal battles. The
first guide created by this group, fighting censorship, is a good
example of this as it ties directly into a problem that the
revolutionary movement behind bars faces regularly – the censorship of
our literature. Under Lock & Key and other lit that we send
in is often rejected and our only recourse is grievances and legal
challenges. Because of the critical role that revolutionary education
plays in our organizing work, we prioritize this legal battle. And we
distribute a censorship guide to all who have our lit rejected.
We have a few cautionary notes to those working on this legal project
and others who are interested in taking up similar legal work. First,
there are many guides already out there for prisoners, so anyone putting
time into this type of project needs to start by making sure you’re not
duplicating work.
Second, as with our anti-censorship work, it’s important that we tie our
legal work to our revolutionary organizing. There are many legal battles
that prisoners are fighting, but these can be a distraction from the
larger struggle if we don’t tie them to the reality that the legal
system isn’t going to make real or substantive change for us. We might
win a few censorship battles, but we’ll never effectively stop
censorship through the imperialist courts. We use the censorship
struggle to highlight the hypocrisy of imperialism and underscore their
fear of revolutionary education, while making some room for us to reach
people with politics.
We need to be organizing people to use legal battles as a part of the
larger campaigns that the movement prioritizes. We can attempt to use
the courts to our advantage, but our goal in the long run is to
dismantle the imperialist courts and replace them with a system of
people’s justice.
This letter is about how we need to encourage and educate each other
while we are all in here. I am in my late 30s and this is my first
arrest ever in my life. So the first couple of weeks was rough, until
one of the guards made a threat against me and I did a greivance. The
other prisoners laughed and said it would do no good. At first I felt
they were right. The CO I wrote up was given the grievance and ripped it
up in front of me and started to tell the others I was a snitch. I felt
helpless.
Then I realized every other prisoner is between 17 and 23 – youngsters.
So I decided to educate myself and others. So I got a copy of the
grievance policy and exhausted it. Then a copy of the state commission
policies and filed with them.
Finally I got a copy of your newsletter and passed it around and – bam!
– the fire was lit in 2 people on my rung. They wanted to know how to
file grievances so I showed them, walked them thru, and gave the support
and explained that it all takes time to get any kind of legal paperwork
done. After 2 and a half months, 2 suspensions and termination, I was
moved to population. After about 2 hours of talking with the 20 inmates
I was going to be housed with, we handed in 19 grievances. So now i am
back in seg. The basic message is this: we need to teach these
youngsters, educate them. As a common voice we can be heard and make a
difference.
For a while now I’ve wondered why all the conflict between anarchists
and socialists/Marxists/Maoists. I mean, we are two revolutionary forces
who are committed to the abolishment of capitalism, imperialism and all
forms of oppression. We have that in common and that is what’s
important. I understand that our strategies and ideologies are a bit
different, but what’s preventing us from getting together in solidarity,
agreeing to disagree and focus our energies on the revolution combining
our strengths and common ground? Why can’t we cease to tear each other
down? I don’t know about anyone else, but this bothers me! The energy
used to tear one another down, discrediting one another, could be used
to gain some real headway by picking up arms together to combat
oppression. Of course there are more experienced and more politicized
people than me that may wish to give me some feedback and critique. I
welcome critique, feedback and criticism.
MIM(Prisons) responds: This is a good question, especially for
building a united movement against imperialism. There are many reasons
to build unity with all who can be united. Maoists advocate a united
front against imperialism because this format of organizing allows all
organizations to freely build their own movements and push their own
ideologies, but come together against a common enemy.
At the same time, we do believe there are some very good reasons to
refuse to unite with some organizations. Just because a group calls
itself “socialist” or “anarchist” doesn’t mean it is automatically on
the right side of the struggle. In the extreme, we have the national
socialists who are really fascists, as an obvious example. But even
among those claiming to be progressive revolutionaries there are some
organizations that have taken up such wrongheaded and dangerous
political lines that we consider them to be more use to the fascists
than to the revolutionaries.
In the case of anarchists in general, we do not see them as enemies. In
fact we believe that anarchists have the same end goal as communists: a
society where no people have power over other people. But anarchists
don’t have a strong history of success in progress towards that goal. We
see their approach of jumping right from imperialism to anarchism as
idealist, because it hasn’t played out in real life at even a comparable
scale to the socialist experiment.
It’s just not realistic to overthrow the imperialists and keep them
overthrown, without a period of proletarian state power. We have too
long of a history of class, nation and gender oppression for that to
happen. The bourgeois classes will need to be forcibly repressed, and
culture will need to be radically altered on a mass scale. It might take
generations before humyns evolve to live peacefully with no oppression.
As MIM write in MIM Theory 8: “Communists know that it takes
power to destroy power, whereas anarchists see power itself, independent
of conditions, as the enemy of the people.”
In the First World, in particular, there are some anarchist (in addition
to socialist) groups which are doing work that actively supports
imperialism. It’s important that organizations clearly work out what are
the most important questions of political line that we face today. For
instance, we have, in this country, a bought-off class of people who are
clearly economically and ideologically in support of imperialism. Yet
some so-called socialist and anarchist organizations see these people as
their mass base, and call on them to rally for even higher wages and a
bigger piece of the imperialist pie. That’s not progressive, that’s a
call to fascism! And so we can’t unite with such political stances. In
fact if that group calls itself “socialist” or “anarchist” or even
“Maoist,” we think that’s more dangerous than if they openly organized
for fascism, because it is misleading people about what is the communist
struggle.