MIM(Prisons) is a cell of revolutionaries serving the oppressed masses inside U.$. prisons, guided by the communist ideology of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism.
Under Lock & Key is a news service written by and for prisoners with a focus on what is going on behind bars throughout the United States. Under Lock & Key is available to U.S. prisoners for free through MIM(Prisons)'s Free Political Literature to Prisoners Program, by writing:
MIM(Prisons) PO Box 40799 San Francisco, CA 94140.
I have initiated this correspondence in reference to the most recent
arbitrary action taken by the South Carolina Department of Corrections
(SCDC) that infringes upon the First Amendment rights of incarcerated,
and non-incarcerated, citizens. The First Amendment of the United States
Constitution states that:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,
or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of
speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to
assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of
grievances.”
However, the SCDC, which is not even a legislative body, has
implemented a policy that impedes and infringes upon the constitutional
right to freedom of speech in violation of the First Amendment of the
U.S. Constitution. The following offense was amended to SCDC Policy
OP-22.14, Inmate Disciplinary System:
“905 Creating and/or assisting with a social networking site: The
facilitation, conspiracy, aiding, abetting in the creation or updating
of an internet web site or social networking site.”
This SCDC policy has resulted in Facebook, a social networking site,
taking the following arbitrary action on accounts created by, or on
behalf of, prisoners within the SCDC:
“Your account is locked because it doesn’t comply with inmate
regulations. People who are incarcerated may not be eligible to use
Facebook if: * It is prohibited by state law or regulations of the
facility * The account is being maintained by someone else”
These actions on the part of the SCDC and Facebook are of
significant public interest due to the fact that they prohibit
non-incarcerated citizens from exercising their First Amendment right to
be able to create and update internet websites and social networking
sites, utilized to advocate for family and legal support on behalf of
their incarcerated family members or loved ones. Further, these actions
by the SCDC and Facebook prohibit non-incarcerated citizens from being
able to publicize the conditions, and rehabilitative efforts, of their
incarcerated family members and loved ones. Such decisions by the SCDC
do not serve any “legitimate penological interests” and are in direct
conflict with any rehabilitative and re-entry agenda. Most importantly,
they are violating non-incarcerated citizens’ First Amendment rights to
free speech.
The SCDC may cite “security concerns” but this is not a valid response.
To prohibit the creation and/or updating of all websites and social
networking sites by, or on behalf of, any prisoner within the SCDC is
not a sound defensible position. It would effectively negate the
hundreds of prisoners who want to establish a true re-entry plan or
proceed on a path of rehabilitation. It would also prohibit
non-incarcerated citizens from exercising their First Amendment rights
to free speech. In addition, it would punish prisoners for the
exercising of this protected right by non-incarcerated citizens.
In a similar case, the U.S. District Court, District of Arizona, decided
against such policies and made the following ruling:
“Prisoners may not be punished for posting material on the internet
with the assistance of non-incarcerated third parties.” Canadian
Coalition Against the Death Penalty v. Ryan, 269 F. Supp. 2d 1199 (D.
Ariz. 2003).
My family created and updated a Facebook account on my behalf to
advocate for the support of my family and friends, and to publicize my
conditions of confinement and rehabilitative efforts and progress.
Facebook has locked that account due to SCDC’s arbitrary policy. My
family and I are preparing to take legal action against the SCDC,
because although they can limit the rights of prisoners due to
“legitimate security concerns,” they do not have the legislative power
to impede upon non-incarcerated citizens’ rights.
My family and I would be grateful for any aid and assistance, or
referrals, that any individual citizen, or group of citizens, may be
able and willing to provide. We would respectfully request that everyone
help in publicizing this issue, because there are many citizens who are
unaware of the fact that they are affected by it. I thank you all in
advance for your time and assistance.
MIM(Prisons) adds: We know that many prisoners and their families
and friends make use of social networking sites like Facebook to
publicize their case and garner help and support. This attempt by SCDC
to further limit prisoner’s voices comes as no surprise after they
banned
literature coming from outside sources a few years ago. We have seen
an upswing in prisoner activism in South Carolina over the past year,
and this policy suggests the prison will do whatever it can to restrict
these activists from getting word out about the abuses and injustice
going on behind bars.
We know that
social
networking sites like Facebook are not going to form the basis for
successful revolutionary struggles, and that we must build
independent institutions of the oppressed, whether online or elsewhere.
Yet even that would not address the threat of punishment against
prisoners for providing information that is posted online, the basis of
this very website. So we
stand behind this prisoner’s fight and agree that SCDC does not have the
right to impose these restrictions. Meanwhile, we call out Facebook for
playing along with regulations that shut down the free speech of
prisoners and their family and friends.
This movie is a must-see for any left-leaning persyn looking to kick
start a revolution or join a movement for the purpose of societal
change. The East is about a subversive underground movement
which can best be described as a loose collection of anarchist cells
focused on giving the heads of corporations that are responsible for
ecological destruction a taste of their own medicine. One reference in
the movie describes them as radical cells that started with Earth First!
They attack big business, who they see as responsible for much of
today’s problems in the United $tates. Indeed, they see the principal
contradiction in the United $tates as between greedy corporations that
will stop at nothing to make a quick buck and the life on planet Earth
that they threaten. The ideas portrayed in their propaganda videos are
hard-hitting in a way that is true to the First World radical ecology
movement in real life.
The potential for the radical ecology movement to be a real force for
change in the First World is one reason this movie is powerful. The
movie is also aesthetically pleasing on many levels (which means it’s
fun to watch!) and filled with political content. It has a couple big
Hollywood names; none more notable than Ellen Page of Juno
fame. This movie speaks mainly to the worries of today’s white
petty-bourgeois youth growing up in the shadows of climate change, oil
spills and other mass pollution, toxic food and medicine and a
consumerist society that doesn’t seem to care. The characters touch on
struggles with their wealth, but ultimately use their privilege to
attack their enemies. They criticize Amerikans for their complacency,
but see the imperialists as the ones deserving severe criticism. Similar
to many radical environmental movements in the real world, there is no
explicit class analysis in the movie, but The East seems
potentially friendly to both a Third Worldist and a First Worldist
perspective. The real positive lessons of this movie however come from
its emphasis on security and organization, or lack thereof, within
supposed revolutionary groups.
The East focuses on an ex-FBI agent named Jane who goes
undercover for Hiller-Brood, a fictional “intelligence firm” that
specializes in protecting the interests of imperialist corporations thru
espionage. Jane’s mission is to attempt to infiltrate The East, a
so-called eco-terrorist organization that has been a thorn in the side
of McCabe-Grey, a fictional corporation that specializes in producing
cutting edge pharmaceuticals. Jane’s assignment is to go undercover
using the name Sarah, to meet and gain the trust of potential East
members that Hiller-Brood has been tailing.
[SPOILER ALERT!]
After a night of partying and getting to know some counter-culture types
who Sarah thinks might know The East, she decides they are relatively
harmless and then sneaks away in the early morning hours to pursue other
potential targets, but not before snapping all their pictures and
sending them back to Hiller-Brood for file building. From here on out
Sarah sets out to meet some other potential targets who are older, more
mysterious and hence more promising. After meeting the possible East
members and train hopping with their friends, Sarah gets her first taste
of pig oppression when they are forced off the train by railroad
security and subsequently beaten. It is in the midst of the commotion
that Sarah sees the persyn she’s been following flash a badge at
security - the persyn she’s been following is a fed! After being left
cuffed to a train Sarah makes a narrow escape from police and is rescued
by one of the train-hoppers whose van she jumps into. Once inside of the
van Sarah recognizes one of the symbols of The East. Convinced she is
now on the right track, Sarah slices her wrist in the hopes that this
guy whose van she’s in will take her to The East. Her plan works, but
not before he runs a quick make on her by dialing the number on her
phone marked “mom.”
After speaking to another Hiller-Brood agent posing as Sarah’s mom, he
destroys her phone, blindfolds her and takes her to a secret location in
the woods; a dilapidated house in the middle of nowhere. As they arrive,
Sarah is introduced to “Doc” the group’s resident doctor, much to the
chagrin of Thumbs the group’s only New Afrikan. As she is being treated
Sarah discovers that Doc was once a med student. She is then drugged and
put to sleep. After waking, Sarah meets Izzy, Ellen Page’s character,
who views Sarah with a skeptical eye. Izzy gives Sarah a straight-jacket
and tells her to wear it if she wants to come down for dinner. Feeling
she is now a hostage, and partly out of curiosity, Sarah reluctantly
agrees to put on the jacket. Once they enter the dining room, Sarah is
surprised to find the rest of the group already assembled at the table
and all wearing straight jackets. At the head of the table is Benji, a
bearded and eccentric looking man who reveals to Sarah that they know
everything about her, her last job as a bank-teller, where she grew up,
everything. All aspects of her cover identity unfortunately.
Benji then tells Sarah that she can begin eating whenever she’s ready.
Not knowing how to eat if she’s in a straight jacket Sarah tells Benji
that she’s a guest and would not feel right if she started before them.
To which Benji responds; “You can do what you please, but we prefer to
eat after you begin.” Confused and uneasy Sarah attempts to eat by
slurping the soup directly from the bowl. Everyone stares at Sarah with
a look of condemnation. What happens next is a “zen” moment in which
everyone takes to eating by having the persyn next to them pick up the
spoon with their mouth and feed them. Feeling played, Sarah storms out
of the house and into the woods where Benji and company follow her and
ask her to come back. Sarah responds, “For what? So you can continue to
make fun of me to your followers?” Benji then explains that he doesn’t
have any followers. He tells her that if she’d only relied on the group,
instead of selfishly trying to feed herself then she wouldn’t be feeling
stupid. Sarah then retorts “Why is it that self-righteousness and
resistance movements always go hand in hand?” Yet it is the bourgeois
and the Christians who are the most self-righteous of all, imposing
their ways on others, forcing the majority to suffer for their own
benefit. They criticize the masses with a false sense of superiority,
while it is the job of revolutionaries to criticize the oppressor with
the basic facts of their oppression. Throughout the movie, it is
stressed that everything members of The East do is their own choice, and
when they do do things it is organized in collective ways that challenge
bourgeois individualism, such as the eating example.
Later that night Sarah is caught spying by Eve, an East member. Sarah is
then forced to reveal herself to Eve, but she tells her that she is an
active FBI agent, and that The East house is currently under
surveillance, and that if she exposes her she’ll go to jail. Eve agrees
to stay quiet but flees the next day without telling anyone what she
knows. The next day The East discovers that Eve has left. This throws
the group’s next mission into limbo. Sarah explains that she can easily
fill Eve’s shoes. The group takes a vote and decides to let Sarah in on
the “jam” so long as her knowledge of the mission is relegated to her
role. Sarah agrees.
The group’s mission is to infiltrate a business party hosted by
McCabe-Grey. Once inside the party their plan is to slip a supposed
anti-malarial drug “Denoxin” into the drinks of some of Amerika’s elites
who have gathered to celebrate a contract between McCabe-Grey and the
U.$. military which will make Denoxin available to Amerikan soldiers
serving abroad. Denoxin’s side-effects have been linked to various
mental and nervous disorders as demonstrated by Doc, who took the drug
after his prescription killed his sister. During the celebration the
vice president of McCabe-Grey gives a speech in which she touts Denoxin
as a miracle drug that will protect men and wimmin in uniform in the
mission to protect Third World people from evil dictators and oppressive
governments; thereby allowing them to bring “freedom and democracy” to
the oppressed masses.
Sarah finds out what The East is up to and attempts to stop it, but it
is too late. The East completes their mission and returns to their
hideout in the woods. Back at the safe-house Sarah takes to snooping and
discovers the real identities of The East members. However, her spying
is cut short when they see breaking news that McCabe-Grey’s vice
president has begun to succumb to Denoxin’s side-effects, her life in
possible danger. The East panics and decides to disperse and flee back
into the relative safety of the city. They all agree that should members
decide to continue with the movement they should all return to the safe
house in a couple weeks.
Now, back in society, undercover agent Sarah seems uncomfortable in the
real world, she is no longer used to the amenities of living in a First
World country. She has become accustomed to living in the woods with The
East and their communal social values; she is conflicted. Though she
feels troubled she returns to Hiller-Brood for debriefing. She gives up
the identities of The East and expresses her concerns that another
attack will occur. She pleads to have The East house raided before they
disappear, but they refuse and send Sarah back for more intelligence
gathering.
Sarah re-connects with The East as they are planning the next action.
This time around, the mission is to get Hawkstone Energy executives (yet
another fictional imperialist corporation) to admit their illegal
pollution practices on camera; illegal practices that have contaminated
a small town’s drinking water. Benji’s plan is to rationalize with the
bourgeois leaders of Hawkstone into giving up their dangerous
exploitation of the earth (kidnapping them and forcing them to listen),
but Thumbs disagrees. Thumbs doesn’t want to talk with the enemy, he
wants action now. He says that these rich types don’t ever respond to
“intellectual bullshit, they respond to firepower!” After some heated
discussion they agree to Benji’s original plan where Izzy ends up dead,
shot by Hawkstone security.
We cannot afford to make the focoist error of taking up armed struggle
when the conditions aren’t right, as the character of Thumbs attempts to
do. Focoism has a long history of failure, getting good revolutionaries
killed or locked up in jail. To think that armed actions will always
inspire the masses towards revolutionary activity is an ultra-left and
deadly, idealist mistake that has left many anti-imperialists either
dead or in prison. In this sense The East has a better strategy in that
they are primarily trying to stop the most powerful people from doing
the damage their corporations are doing, rather than engaging in focoist
actions aimed at convincing Amerikans that the corporations need to be
stopped. The East may actually end up stopping some corporations, and
the individuals leading them, from some of their more destructive
practices. But in the end this strategy, like focoism, lacks the big
picture perspective that will enable us to put an end to the
environmental destruction that is inherent to capitalism. What their
strategy lacks is the building of independent institutions of the
oppressed that have the power to implement environmentally-friendly
production methods while meeting the people’s needs. While the movie
shows The East building alternative culture within their collective, we
must figure out how to go bigger than that to really counter the
powerful corporations that are now calling the shots.
When Izzy dies, The East becomes spooked and are thrown into disarray.
One member talks of abandoning the movement and Benji tries to get him
to stay. Benji tells him that “a revolution is never easy, but that
doesn’t make it any less important,” to which the deserter states, “I
would betray the revolution for Izzy, that’s the difference between you
and me.” This is an inherent weakness in petty bourgeois radical
movements. When those they care about are threatened they see the
comforts of petty bourgeois life as preferable to struggle. This is why
the deserter is able to succumb to such individualist ways of thinking.
For the proletariat, oppression is a daily reality, and death of a
comrade will tend to justify further what they are doing rather than
discourage. What we must fully understand however is that the success or
failure of any movement does not hinge on the importance of one
individual, one man, one womyn or one child; but on the stated aims of
that movement and the completion of that goal, and if we stray from
those principles then we are just as guilty of betraying the revolution
as the deserter in the movie did.
At this point, this cell of The East splits up yet again. Back at
Hiller-Brood Sarah discloses the day’s events, she reports Izzy’s death
and claims that The East is in shambles, a perfect time to move in and
arrest them all. Her advice is again ignored. She is ordered to go back.
She meets with Benji, but this time pleads with him to give up the
movement; partly out of her wish to prevent another attack or death, and
partly because she has developed romantic feelings for him. Benji
refuses and instead convinces her to take part in one last mission. She
agrees because she has feelings for him and because she has now been won
over to The East’s cause.
On the way to the next mission Benji exposes his hand and tells Sarah
that he knows she’s a spy. He tells her that if she was ever down with
the movement or truly had feelings for him, then she’d complete the
mission and run away with him. She agrees to help. The mission is to
retrieve a flash drive from the offices of Hiller-Brood that contains
the names of fifty agents embedded in underground movements all across
the world. Benji convinces Sarah that he only wants the list to spy on
the spies; but what he really wants is to expose the agents to their
organizations. She carries out the mission but when she finds out
Benji’s true intention she denies having stolen the flash drive. She
tries to convince Benji that if they were to obtain the list it’d be
better to talk the agents into giving up their careers as spies for the
greater good. She argues if they only knew what they were really doing,
they’d all turn just as she had. Benji refuses and they part ways. He,
back to the underground, and she onto a one womyn awareness campaign.
The movie ends with clips of her talking to what appear to be other
Hiller-Brood agents outside of oil refineries and power plants. The take
away? Don’t work outside the system in order to change it, work
alongside it in order to change minds one persyn at a time.
Now let us examine this film from a Maoist perspective: “In the world
today, all culture, all literature and all art belong to definite
classes and are geared to definite political lines. There is in fact no
such thing as art for art’s sake, art that stands above classes, art
that is detached or independent of politics.” (MIM Theory 13)
This should be our attitude and guiding line when viewing or reviewing
art i.e, film, literature, music, etc. Only with this attitude will we
be able to see thru the bourgeoisie obfuscation of art. Furthermore;
“works of literature and art, as ideological forms are products of the
life of a given society.” Which means that what we as a society deem to
be art can only be pulled from the consciousness of society itself. Art
expresses not only individual, but society’s wishes, its desires, its
anxieties and its perceived problems.
Now we began this review by stating that this movie was aesthetically
pleasing and filled with political content. Comrade Mao taught us that
the most reactionary art in class society is both high in artistic value
and filled with political content. And who’s political views was this
movie putting forward? The bourgeoisie’s of course. But even though it
is a bourgeoisie product with bourgeois aims we can still learn
something from it that we can apply to our own movement. Hence, we
should not totally discard it.
Overall, The East is painted in a very positive light in this film,
highlighting the liberatory and egalitarian aspects of the anarchist
sub-culture. What we are to take away from this is Sarah benefitted and
learned from that experience, but goes on to have her real impact by
working among the agents of the imperialists to convince them what they
are doing is wrong. The whole premise assumes that people just don’t
know the destruction that these corporations are doing. While the
details are certainly masked from Amerikans, the information is still
readily available, and a historical analysis of this country will reveal
much deeper roots to reactionary politics of the Amerikan consumer
nation. A more damaging storyline that would be justified by this movie,
which we see time and time again in real life, is the activist who
participates in radical organizing to learn and build cred and then goes
on to work within the system as Sarah does when they “grow up.” This
movie will play well with the radical-curious, who find their life’s
work in NGOs, non-profits and even government agencies. The good side of
this film is that it could lead people to be sympathetic to the cause of
radical ecology, despite its praise of reformism. There are also some
good practical lessons in this movie.
The first lesson to take away from this film is that any movement that
is truly working against the interests of the imperialists will simply
not be tolerated. The agents of repression are always looking to smash
movements of dissent and are constantly working vigorously to infiltrate
and spy on us.
Secondly, we must be cautious of who we decide to work with and who we
reveal ourselves to. Simply because we meet people who seem to share our
political views does not mean they are comrades and thereby privy to our
organization’s actions or methods of work. Within sub-cultures, having
the right look and lifestyle can lead to people putting their guards
down for superficial reasons. Sarah demonstrates this, and there are
many real-world Sarahs whose stories have been exposed. This essentially
breaks down to “better, fewer, but better.” And even good comrades can
be turned, which we should keep in mind as well. The bourgeoisie and
their spies are highly organized and we should be too. A good way of
keeping security tight within our organizations is by keeping politics
in command. No one who isn’t putting in work should know anything about
our organizations other than what is published in the pages of Under
Lock & Key and the MIM(Prisons) website. Our work should always
be geared along the lines of what will be the most effective and will
get us the furthest fastest. As such, security within our movement
shouldn’t be something we study in addition to theory, but should stem
directly from it.
Thirdly, we shouldn’t necessarily have to like our comrades on a
persynal level. Just because we like certain people or have relative
unity with them on certain issues doesn’t mean we recruit based on
popularity. We recruit based on the correctness of one’s political line
and the type of work done over a period of time. When they were around,
the original Maoist Internationalist Party - Amerika was the vanguard of
the communist movement in the North American continent exactly because
they were composed of the communist elite. They didn’t get to those
positions overnight due to social networking, but because they put in
the correct type of work over a sustained period. This is something else
we should remember when building and re-building our movements. Thus, if
we are serious about taking the socialist road then we must study and
work assiduously to learn Marxist philosophy, scientific socialism and
Marxist political economy so that we may integrate it into our work and
apply the most correct political lines.
In conclusion, we must take art seriously and not cede the cultural wars
to the bourgeoisie but must engage them on that level as well. For the
bourgeoisie this movie was a hit due to its successful combination of
aesthetics and politics. Therefore we must also seek to fuse the
political with the artistic. Under Lock & Key already does
this to a certain degree as the ULK writers struggle to make it the
trenchant arm of the revolution. Right now however, what ULK lacks in
artistic value it makes up in political worth, though there is much room
for improvement.
Don’t work alongside imperialism to change it one persyn at a time.
Rather, work directly against it in order to smash it and revolutionize
the world.
While news of online spying by the U.$. government is growing, a court
case may provide even broader access for government agencies. This case
involves
Lavabit,
the former email provider for MIM(Prisons). On January 28, the owner
of Lavabit went to court to appeal the contempt of court ruling against
the company for failing to hand over encryption keys to his email
service. The 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals has not yet rendered a
verdict, but it will have significant implications on what the
government can demand of email providers in the future. This case
revolves around the Lavabit SSL keys. These keys were used to decrypt
incoming traffic from Lavabit users accessing via an encrypted
connection. If Lavabit had given up the keys before shutting down their
operation, the government could capture every users password next time
they logged in and have full access to their email.
Last June Lavabit was ordered to give the government a live feed of
email activity for a specific account. People generally assume this was
Edward Snowden’s account based on court filing information that refers
to his violations of the Espionage Act and theft of government property.
Lavabit founder Lader Levison offered to transmit the information
requested after 60 days, claiming he needed time to reprogram his system
to collect the information. We can’t be sure what Levison would have
ultimately handed over, but this is further evidence that users can not
rely on their email providers for security. In fact, in court Lavabit’s
attorney claims that Levison had complied with at least one similar
court order in the past.(1)
In July, after Levison’s delay, the FBI served Levison with a search
warrant demanding the private SSL keys that would enable them to decrypt
all traffic to and from the site. The government promised to only use
the keys for the individual targeted and said they would not spy on the
other 410,000 Lavabit users.(2)
The FBI had already begun collecting encrypted data from Lavabit’s
upstream provider in anticipation of getting the key to decrypt it, and
they still have this data.(2) If the government has the SSL keys, all
emails for an unknown period of time for all users on the Lavabit email
system are in the hands of the government.
After an August 1 court order upholding the government’s demand for the
Lavabit SSL keys, Levison did turn them over, but as an 11 page printout
in 4-point type.(1) This was clearly an attempt to comply in form
without making the key usable, or at least delaying its usability. But
in spite of the paper form, the government now has the Lavabit SSL keys,
all they need to do is manually enter the 2,560 characters. While
tedious, this is certainly doable and we think it likely that they
quickly completed this work.
The government responded to the printout by demanding an electronic
format and on August 6 began fining Levison $5,000 per day until he
complied with the FBI’s order. Levison shut down Lavabit altogether on
August 8.(2)
Although the government and the appellate court Judge hearing the case
both claim the SSL keys could not be used for anything other than the
individual target in question, the search warrant and sanctions order
both place no restrictions on what can be done with the key.(2) Not that
we think the government complies with these sorts of formalities anyway.
British Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group (JTRIG) presentation to
the U.$, Australian, Canadian and New Zealand intelligence agencies
Newly released information about the British GCHQ and Amerikan NSA
expose the agencies’ work to manipulate and undermine online individuals
and organizations. In addition to the monitoring of online activity,
email, and phone calls, the government tactics include Denial of Service
attacks to shut down websites, releasing viruses to destroy computers,
traps to lure people into compromising situations using sex, and release
of false information to destroy reputations.
Previous Snowden documents revealed
widespread
spying by U.$ and British government agencies. These new documents
confirm what we’ve said for years: the government has a long running
infiltration and misinformation campaign to disrupt and manipulate
individuals and groups they see as dangerous. This is particularly
focused on political activists.
The online attacks were detailed in a 2012 presentation from the British
Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group (JTRIG) presented to the U.$,
Australian, Canadian and New Zealand intelligence agencies. The slides
describe this “Cyber Offensive” as “Pushing the Boundaries and Action
Against Hacktivism.” Essentially this is a way to attack people who are
not charged with any crimes but are seen as somehow dangerous, generally
because of their political protests.
One of the tactics, called false flag operations, involves posting
material online that is falsely attributed to someone, and includes
“write a blog purporting to be one of their victims”, “email/text their
colleagues, neighbours, friends etc,” and “change their photos on social
networking sites.” This is a continuation of the COINTELPRO work of the
Amerikan spy agencies targeting activist organizations in the 1960s,
moved online for faster and more efficient attacks on enemies of the
government. Those who have studied the Black Panther Party know about
the government-led infiltratration and misleadership, false letters sent
to disrupt internal communication and create divisions, and many other
tactics used to imprison and destroy the most advanced and effective
revolutionary organization of its time. Maoism is just as dangerous to
the U.$. government today as it was in the 1960s, and just as our
organizing work has advanced, their COINTELPRO work has also advanced.
It is right for our readers to ask, as
one
reader did in 2012, “I am concerned you have been already
infiltrated or you’re a CIA front organization claiming revolutionary
organizing.” We should question all individuals and organizations in
this way, and judge them by their actions. You can’t just take someone’s
word that they are a revolutionary; their political line and actions
must be correct. And even then, there is no reason to give out more
information about yourself than absolutely necessary. As we outlined in
our article
“Self-Defense
and Secure Communications”, we can make the government’s job much
more difficult by taking some basic security precautions in our work.
These latest Snowden revelations remind us of the struggle of the Maoist
Internationalist Party - Amerika (the vanguard party of the Maoist
Internationalist Movement in the United $tates in the 1980s to 2000s)
which had its information hosted on the etext.org website. Throughout
their decades of work they often encountered forces on the internet that
they characterized as cops based on their politics and behavior. This
goes much deeper than our
warnings
against using corporate online social networks for organizing work.
It requires a continued study of politics in order to guard against
online pigs who will often outnumber the proletariat forces in that
forum. Without a continued study and application of politics in such
work, people quickly degenerate into nihilism because they are unable to
trust anyone they interact with online. An unwillingness to engage in
scientific skepticism will often lead to such nihilism and/or a
degeneration to doing work that does not threaten imperialism to avoid
these struggles.
Before MIP-Amerika ceased to exist one of its underground leaders went
public with his name and persynal information in an attempt to fight
back against behind-the-scenes government attacks. Many of the attacks
he described come right out of this JTRIG playbook. In response to the
situation, many of the MIM posts on etext.org were focused on security
and confusing to most readers. But that doesn’t make the struggle
undertaken there incorrect, and these latest revelations lend further
credence to the revelations from MIM. We can only assume that as the
organization with the most correct revolutionary line within the United
$tates, the government spy agencies focused significant attention on
disrupting and destroying the MIP-Amerika. While that specific
organization no longer exists, there are new Maoist groups like
MIM(Prisons)
continuing
the legacy of MIM, and we have a responsibility to be diligent about
security to ensure our continued existence.
In response to the May 2013 article
Rats
Undermine United Front Unity, as a brother of the struggle,
originally from Texas, I send mine to all you brothers and sisters back
home.
As leaders, we have to be serious about our roles in the movement,
accepting responsibility for any personal miscalculation made while
representing our units, party, cell, etc.
Period. No cut on it.
Communication is key when organizing the lumpen to unite. And most times
having a safe and secure line of communication can be just as important,
if not more important, than what is actually being said. Because what is
a line of communication if it is always being disturbed, interfered and
disrupted? I don’t know, but it isn’t effective communication I tell you
that.
So often we hear prisoners commenting on how great the power of snitches
and provocateurs are, and it bothers me that we are able to concentrate
so much energy on them instead of on the tactics of countering their
elementary crosses, and their state.
Sometimes we revolutionaries have to accept the consequences of our
miscalculation so that we can learn an experience that allows us to
identify the signs of the problem when it approaches again, instead of
being so quick to place blame or responsibility on another person.
I personally was caught slipping while in the possession of a wire
regarding economical development involving a select few. The flashlight
turtles ran up at an unexpected time to my assigned quarters. With the
choice of catching a narcotics possession/distribution charge or
dropping my line in order to dispose, I took the latter option and
became guilty of losing an important wire. I didn’t agree with the
charge by my peers or the penalty, but I did take responsibility for the
wire being lost. It is very likely that someone very close to me set the
authorities to get with my program, but the point is it was my
responsibility to safe guard the wire. I lost a lot due to one
miscalculation - like a comrade at arms on the battlefield - from great
allies who can never again support my campaigns, to resources of a
collective committee with it’s tentacles reaching into places all across
the seas. But on the other hand I learned that the ability to secure and
stabilize a line of communication with very important factions behind
the wire from state to state is very powerful. But for most it’s a
learned ability.
I suggest to all comrades that we learn to say who did it less, and
practice doing it more. Securing and stabilizing lines of communication
is a great place to start.
MIM(Prisons) adds: We’ve written extensively about the importance
of
secure
communications both behind the bars and on the streets. This is a
critical element of self-defense for the revolutionary movement. As the
state expands it’s tactics of infiltration and information gathering, we
must expand our defenses.
In a joint U.$. and UK spying operation, agencies hacked into links to
Yahoo and Google data centers, allowing them to freely collect
information from user accounts on those systems. This data collection
project, called MUSCULAR, is a joint operation between the U.$. National
Security Agency (NSA) and the British Government Communications
Headquarters (GCHQ). Documents released by former National Security
Agency (NSA) contractor, Edward Snowden and “interviews with
knowledgeable officials” are the sources for this news that was broken
by The Washington Post on October 30, 2013. Google was
“outraged” at this revelation, and many Amerikans were shocked to learn
of the violation of their privacy by their own government.
Of course, for those of us serious about security in our political
organizing work, this is not breaking news. It is just further
confirmation of what we’ve been saying for a long time: email is not
secure, especially email on the major service providers like Google and
Yahoo. Back in August
MIM(Prisons)
had our email account shut down when the U.$. government demanded
that our email server, lavabit.com, turn over information on the
accounts it provided. Lavabit decided it would rather stop providing
services at all than comply with the government’s demand. We can only
assume that any email service still in operation is supplying
information to the U.$. government.
What is interesting about this story is not that the NSA is caught red
handed snooping on people’s email, but that they would even need to do
this in the first place, when major companies are freely providing
backdoor access to the U.$. government. A court-approved process
provides the NSA with access to Yahoo and Google user accounts, through
a program known as PRISM. Through PRISM, the NSA can demand online
communications records that match specific search terms. Apparently this
restriction to court approved search terms was too limiting for the NSA,
who has been siphoning off vast portions of the data held in Google and
Yahoo data centers, for analysis and more targeted snooping.
MUSCULAR gets around the already lax U.$. government policies on spying
on Americans by exploiting links between data centers holding
information outside of the U.$. where intelligence gathering falls under
presidential authority and has little oversight or restriction.
As we pointed out in the article
Self-Defense
and Secure Communications: “Currently, we do not have the ability to
defend the movement militarily, but we do have the ability to defend it
with a well-informed electronic self-defense strategy. And just as
computer technology, and the internet in particular, was a victory for
free speech, it has played a role in leveling the battlefield to the
point that the imperialists recognize computer warfare as a material
vulnerability to their hegemony.” In that article we provided some basic
suggestions for communications self-defense, most of which are only
possible for people outside of prisons.
As more information comes out on the vast resources invested in
electronic surveillance it is clearer that improving our technology is a
form of offensive work as well, even if we aren’t launching attacks. The
imperialists are spending a lot of resources trying to defeat the tools
we mention in our last article. In using these tools in our day-to-day
work we tie up those resources that could be used to fight other battles
against the oppressed elsewhere. This should be stressed to those who
think security is taking time away from “real work.”
Some will not organize until they’ve read all of Marx’s writings to
ensure they understand Marxism. This is a mistake, just like waiting to
get the perfect electronic security before doing any organizing work.
But you should assume that all of our communications are being
intercepted. Take whatever precautions you can to ensure your
information cannot be accessed, or if it can, that it cannot be used
against you or others. Security is like theory and any organizing skill;
it should be constantly improved upon, but it should not paralyze your
work.
I do all I can here to educate prisoners in the science of revolution. I
share Under Lock & Key, I pass MIM(Prisons)’s address
around, I conduct study groups, I raise consciousness and awareness
while showing solidarity. Yet, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice
officials are agents of repression using all kinds of divide and conquer
tactics against these efforts.
The other day I was conducting a study group in solitary confinement and
the pigs were using disruption by instigating a racial argument between
two Black prisoners and a Mexican prisoner. I tried to keep the peace
and unity among prisoners, but the pigs are constantly breaking the
unity and provoking racial conflict. I tried to intervene by telling
these three prisoners to stop arguing about insignificant things and to
set aside their differences and come together in unity, solidarity and
cooperation. Then two of the Black prisoners started caling me “wet
back.” I just had to terminate the study group at that moment to prevent
further altercations and racial conflict among these three inmates. I
had similar experiences in the past when I tried to educate fellow
prisoners; sooner or later the pigs manipulated the situation and use
these ignorant inmates to turn against me and start calling me racial
slurs.
Look comrades, I have to be very cautious when I give your address to
some of these prisoners because some of them are agent provocateurs,
snitches, double agents, pretenders, informants and just brainwashed. So
be aware of this matter. I just don’t let these pigs get to me with
their dirty tactics of divide and conquer. Some comrades over here are
willing to learn, others are just playing games, and others are just
brainwashed and it will take too long to make them conscious of
revolutionary knowledge so I rather concentrate more on those comrades
willing to learn and to assimilate Maoism into their thinking.
MIM(Prisons) responds: This report from a United Struggle from
Within (USW) comrade is an example of United Front work among the
imprisoned lumpen. This is the more tedious stuff that dedicated
comrades must engage in over years and decades before getting to more
glorious examples like 30,000 prisoners refusing food on the same day in
California. So we want to recognize all who, like this comrade, keep
working and not letting the pigs get to them.
It’s true those who follow the pigs’ manipulations are ignorant, and
someday they will probably recognize that and feel great shame. But this
story itself is an example of a teaching moment. By setting a good
example, others learned something that day about the roles of the pigs
because of the efforts this comrade made to build unity. And it is by
consistently providing examples like this to the masses that ignorance
is overcome. When an individual overcomes their ignorance and opens up
to new ideas, those are the people who should get your persynalized
attention to develop their theory and practice.
Finally, we are aware that many people write us with bad intentions.
Some have requested that we not send materials to such people. But this
allows the very people we are trying to avoid to manipulate us into
censoring ourselves. And in the current format of our work, there is no
certain way for us to identify all pigs. As we have written in
articles
about security in the past, we must judge people based on their
actions, and only give out information on an as needed basis. So we are
very conscious about what information is public and what is not, and we
will spread public information as widely as we can. As we recently
wrote, comrades should not mistake Under Lock & Key
subscribers for USW members. Just because we send someone mail, does not
tell you anything about our assessment of that individual’s political
reliability.
El burguesía parece estar perdiendo la batalla por libre empresa contra
el gobierno represivo de Estados Unidos, y no puede más ser que algún
servicio comercial de correo electrónico que no proporcione acceso
directo a toda la información de los usuarios a Las Agencias del
Inteligencia del los Estados unidos. Nos enteramos de esto hoy cuando
nuestro servicio de correo electrónico, Lavabit.com, no estaba más
accesible y el propietario envío puso un mensaje declarando,
He sido forzado a hacer una difícil decisión: estar en complicidad con
crímines contra la gente americana o alejarme de cerca diez años de duro
trabajo cerrando Lavabit. Después de significativo examen de conciencia,
he decidido suspender operaciones.
La clara implicación es que los federales se acercaron a el a demandarle
acceso a las comunicaciones en su servicio. Comunicaciones que existen
fueron anunciadas como inaccesibles a cualquiera menos a el usuario
quien poseyere la cuenta. Para no soltar mas información del usuario a
los federales el cerro la mesa de servicio; una decisión seguramente no
tomada a la ligera cuando personas dependían en sus correos electrónicos
para mucho en sus vidas diarias.
Justo a principios de esta semana esto fue revelado por un servicio
popular de presentación, que Tor Hidden Servicios estaba comprometido y
sitios en ese servicio estaban infectados con malicioso lenguaje
computarizado (Javascript) para revelar las direcciones IP de los
usuarios (usualmente escondidos por la Red Tor) a un servicio localizado
en Virginia. La implicación evidente allí esta operación estaba
relacionada a las Agencias de Inteligencia del Estados Unido$ las cuales
dominaban la región. Uno de los más populares sitios afectados por este
ataque fue Tor mail, otro proclamado el mismo como un servicio seguro de
correo electrónico.
Todo esto comenzó inmediatamente después de la liberaciones de
información sobre el sistema de la Agencia de Seguridad Nacional (NSA)
de los Estados Unido$, de monitorear todas las comunicaciones
electrónicas en el mundo. La información publicado hace esto claro que
todas las mayores compañías comerciales de computadoras (software) han
proporcionado acceso para entrar en la red de sus computadoras y
servicios por linea, al gobierno de Estados Unido$. Con la destrucción
de Lavabit y Tormail, esto parece evidente que los Estado$ Unido$ no
tiene intención de dejar algunas excepciones para que ese sistema
continuara. El anunciador, Edward Snowden era conocido por usar Lavabit,
como su correo electrónico, llevando a muchos a deducir que Lavabit fue
una víctima de la cacería de Estados Unido$ por Snowden mismo. Otros han
especulado que el ataque a Tor fue un intento de asustar gente de la tan
llamada Red Oscura (Darknet) y de regresarlos a los brazos amistosos de
Google, Microsoft, et al.
Mientras que usando supuestamente servicios seguros en línea que puedan
proporcionar una capa extra de protección, no puedes confiar en un grupo
desconocido para tu seguridad en todo caso. Eso es porque servicios con
medidas de seguridad PGP encriptadas, como hushmail.com, son un chiste
desde el principio. Hushmail.com, trabaja abiertamente con el gobierno
americano aunque ellos no son una compañía de Estado$ Unido$.
Ciertamente otras naciones intentaran apoderarse de la ventaja
competitiva que ellos ahora tienen sobre un negocio que hace tiempo ha
sido dominado por las compañías del Estado$ Unido$. Y como recientemente
dijimos, lo positivo de todo esto es un aumento en demanda e innovación
en el terreno de seguridad informática.
Por ahora, no puedes enviar correos electrónicos a MIM(Prisones); en vez
de eso, ve a nuestra pagina de contacto. Estaremos investigando
soluciones alternativas y las imprimiremos en nuestros anuncios en la
pagina de contacto una vez que ellos estén disponibles. Si todavía estas
usando correo electrónico sin inscripción para trabajo político, tomate
el tiempo y empieza estudiando nuestras conexiones de seguridad en
nuestra pagina de contacto. La última generación revolucionaria
subestimado el papel de COINTELPRO hasta que esto fue demasiado tarde.
Esto sería un crimen contra la gente como para que nosotros hagamos el
mismo error con todo lo que sabemos hoy.
The bourgeoisie seems to be losing the battle for free enterprise
against the repressive U.$. government. There can no longer be any
commercial email service that does not provide direct access to all its
users’ information to the U.$. intelligence agencies. We discovered this
today when our email server, lavabit.com, was no longer accessible and
the owner posted a message stating,
I have been forced to make a difficult decision: to become complicit in
crimes against the American people or walk away from nearly ten years of
hard work by shutting down Lavabit. After significant soul searching, I
have decided to suspend operations.
The clear implication is that the feds approached him to demand access
to the communications on his server. Existing communications were
advertised as not accessible to anyone but the user who owns the
account. In order to not release any future user info to the feds he
shut down the server; a decision surely not taken lightly when people
depend on their email for so much of their lives.
Just earlier this week it was revealed that a popular hosting service
for Tor hidden services was comprimised and sites on that server were
infected with malicious javascript to reveal users’ IP addresses
(usually hidden by the Tor network) to a server located in Virginia. The
obvious implication there was that this operation was related to U.$.
intelligence agencies which dominate the region. One of the more popular
sites affected by this attack was Tormail, another self-proclaimed
secure email service.
All of this comes on the heels of the release of information on the U.$.
National Security Agency’s (NSA) system of monitoring all electronic
communications in the world. Information released makes it clear that
all major commercial software companies have provided backdoors to their
software and online services to the U.$. government. With the
destruction of Lavabit and TorMail, it seems clear that the United
$tates has no intention of letting any exceptions to that rule continue.
Whistleblower Edward Snowden was known to use lavabit.com for his email,
leading many to conclude that Lavabit was a victim of the U.$. hunt for
Snowden himself. Others have speculated that the attack on Tor was an
attempt to scare people out of the so-called darknet and back into the
friendly arms of Google, Microsoft, et al.
While using allegedly secure online services can provide an extra layer
of protection, you cannot rely on an unknown party for your security
anyway. That is why services with built in PGP encryption, like
hushmail.com, are a joke from the get go. Hushmail.com openly works with
the Amerikan government already even though they are not a U.$. company.
Certainly other nations will attempt to seize the competitive advantage
they now have over a business that has long been dominated by U.$.
companies. And as we recently said, the positive of all this is a
surge
in demand and innovation in the realm of computer security.
For now, you cannot email MIM(Prisons); instead, see our
contact page. We
will be investigating alternative solutions and post them on our
announcements and contact page once they are available. If you’re still
using unencrypted email for political work, get with the times and start
studying our
security links
on our contact page. The last revolutionary generation underestimated
the role of COINTELPRO until it was too late. It would be a crime
against the people for us to make the same mistake with everything we
know today.
A lot of talk and discussion has been flying lately about the recent
exposure of the United $tates’s massive worldwide spying apparatus.
While the European Union superstructure of imperialist nations and
empires cry “Foul!,” their cries are for show only. In January 2012 the
E.U super-state shot down a proposal that would have made it illegal for
the United $tates to spy on E.U. citizens. The Amerikans threatened
economic warfare and the U.$. administration heavily lobbied E.U.
officials to crush the proposal before it was brought to member nations
for referendum. E.U. officials promptly did so, proving the United
$tates to be the current dominant world imperialist superpower.(1)
A reason some European countries/empires are reluctant to raise much of
an outcry is because most communications at some point have to travel
thru U.$. telecom and internet servers. European imperialist countries
can then backdoor their own countries’ warrant requirements by just
requesting the information from U.$. spy agencies. Britain has also been
known to do this to monitor insurgencies in its colonies.(2)(3) These
revelations bring about the question, how else does this issue affect
colonized peoples and the Third World?
The United $tates set up the notoriously corrupt Mexican government’s
entire telecommunications network to spy on its own citizenry, and of
course to allow the United $tates to monitor all communications passing
thru Mexico.(4) As stated above most of the world’s communications will
pass thru U.$. systems and systems set up by the United $tates. This
allows the Amerikans to spy on the entire world’s communications,
thereby helping them to control entire populations, and manipulate
governments and markets, which explains why the United $tates is so
willing to export this technology.(5)
The United $tates and Israel have been exporting this technology for
years.(6) One of the largest electronic surveillance companies Verint
was founded by former Israeli intelligence officer Jacob “Kobi”
Alexander. The CEO is Dan Bonder, former Israeli army engineer.(7) The
United $tates uses a lot of Verint software for eavesdropping. Another
major client of Verint is the government of Vietnam, who uses Verint
technology to monitor dissidents and silence them.(8)
Another large U.$./Israeli intelligence firm, Narus, provides
eavesdropping technology to the Chinese Government, which uses the
technology to monitor citizens, silence dissidents and to prevent
Chinese workers from organizing. Narus also provides and has provided
its services to the oppressive regimes in Egypt (Mubarak), Libya, and
Saudi Arabia.(9)
Without this U.$./Israeli technology these repressive governments could
not track VOIP calls or block “unapproved” websites or track
dissidents.(10) These systems allow these repressive regimes to impose a
stranglehold on their citizenry/workers on behalf of the U.$.
imperialists. This makes these U.$./Israeli firms not only responsible
for helping to maintain this stranglehold but also largely responsible
for the death, torture, and detention of the citizens and workers of
these countries.
MIM(Prisons) adds:In issue 33 of Under Lock & Key we
are focusing on the importance of independence in order to achieve
self-determination. U.$. surveillance is just one more thing to consider
in trying to maintain independence. One positive result coming out of
the information released about the NSA’s global data mining operations
is a flurry of support in the First World (from people who haven’t had
to worry about things like COINTELPRO in the past) for independent, open
source technology projects that focus on providing security to all. Many
of these we mentioned in our article
Self-Defense
and Secure Communications in ULK 31. But using better
technology is not the only lesson to take from this. Another lesson is
that more traditional forms of communication, in societies less
integrated into the imperialist system (where resistance also happens to
be more fertile) will be an even better route than depending on
technologies, such as social media, where the imperialists can easily
dominate.