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.
Who did what who called the shot I just don’t know all I
know is that it shouldn’t have been so Malcolm should have lived
until he was a thousand years old or even more some say it was
the COINTELPRO of that I’m sure but what made negroes gun down
our hero and turn around and practice non-violence towards a
savage who threatens our very existence while Malcolm was plotting a
resistance against the nemesis these imbeciles was plotting
against the shining prince they’re worse than Judas because
Judas had a conscience so he hung himself after his treacherous
action but after the treason these Judases are still
breathing why don’t they just die and make us rejoice with
joy non-believers disguised in Black skin sabotaging the struggle
that they don’t believe in so they use their skin to deceive men
niggas killed Malcolm X and niggas will probably kill me too
You got to be naive to believe you can determine friend from
foe just based on skin color alone and not by the content of the
character I see the niggas but where my brothers at Bob Marley
said that they sold Marcus Garvey for rice Then they ambushed Bob
Marley in the night They say the eyes never lie but experience
tells me that they don’t always tell the truth
niggas killed Malcolm X and niggas will probably kill me too
Huey Newton was still an asset yet slugs put him in his
casket while agent provocateurs that deserve death remain in
our midst misfits in positions of leadership navigating the lives
of the less fortunate the blind leading the blind now we can’t
find our way out of this maze that got us trapped and strapped
with gats that we only aim at Blacks
niggas killed Malcolm X and niggas will probably kill me too
I’m analyzing this self hatred wondering why this Black life of
mine ain’t considered sacred in a blink of an eye a nigga would
lay me dead on the pavement but if my pigment was white a nigga
would think twice fifty times before he contemplates homicide I’ve
stared into the eyes of these boys who claim to be real men and
I’ve seen the fear that paralyzes that make them throw away their
weapon when the cops hit the intersection we’re conditioned for
submission so the prisons are full of Blacks who hate
Blacks and back stab each other because they’re petrified of the
real nemesis life sentences and these fools are complacent with
just being jail house celebrities all is vanity buy up the
commissary and live good in the penitentiary while we’re
becoming liabilities to our families where’s the sanity?
niggas killed Malcolm X and niggas will probably kill me too
This article is aimed particularly at the young reader born into the
current culture of mass communication. The concepts aren’t new. We just
want to highlight the implications of state surveillance, which is a
reality for anyone seeking social change in a state whose primary
concern is maintaining the oppressive social order under imperialism.
One of the important tasks of intelligence is to develop a map of the
networks of those being surveilled. This simple fact is too often
ignored in our culture today, where technology has electronically and
permanently connected us. What used to at least require a warrant sent
to your phone company is now public information for most people in the
United $tates today who regularly use social networking through the
internet and their cell phones.
To an extent, the omnipresence of these technologies in Amerikan lives
have made people more conscious of this vulnerability. Yet, very few
involved in voicing opinions in favor of a world without oppression
actually incorporate this knowledge into their practice. Largely this is
a class issue where the petty bourgeoisie feels safe living in a
bourgeois democracy. In much more remote parts of the world, there is a
greater understanding of the need for encryption and shielding one’s
identity because the consequences are life and death.
MIM(Prisons) doesn’t engage in baseless alarmism to mobilize people, but
this is a case where you should be considering worst case scenarios,
like how a fascist government might carry out a witch-hunt for
“communists” and “terrorists” using public information on the internet.
When struggling with allies about security, we regularly get the
response, “I’m already on all their lists.” It’s often a point of pride
to say this. But the oppressed know that getting on a list has
real
consequences. In addition, anyone who has studied COINTELPRO knows
that the government is interested in more than just your name, but our
sense of comfort here in the belly of the beast leads to lazy practices
and nihilistic attitudes towards security.
Like we said, this isn’t about persecuting people for thought crimes,
though that has happened countless times to U.$. citizens as a result of
information posted on the internet. COINTELPRO was about disrupting
movements. It is far too easy for a fat pig sitting at his desk to know
who young activists are in touch with, and what they are doing when and
where. Using this information the imperialist state can be very
strategic in how it uses its various tools of repression. With the
current state of security culture, technology has given the oppressor
the advantage, but this does not have to be the case.
After All the Tweeting, Now What?
As we work on finishing the first draft of this article, the U.$. media
is talking about popular demonstrations against governments in Tunisia
and Egypt and their use of Twitter and Facebook. Tweeting is a good way
to mobilize a flash mob; it is not a good way to build people’s power.
It is about as effective as banging a pot in the street. While we don’t
mean to dismiss these recent movements in particular, there is plenty of
history to show that spontaneous demonstrations do not save lives or
improve conditions – capitalism continues on.
We’ve already addressed some of the class issues surrounding the
dependence on technology like Twitter
elsewhere.
Twitter is also an example of corporations defining cultural trends. It
almost seems there was a law passed last year that every corporate media
entity had to mention Twitter once every 20 minutes on their
programming. This free advertising should raise questions around a
company that has already openly worked with the U.$. government to
overthrow foreign regimes and repress resistance within this country.
Despite arrests for such activities, people continue to use Twitter to
report from protests in the U.$. without any attempt to cloak the
identities of themselves or others involved. Meanwhile, Twitter remains
mainly a tool to promote capitalist consumption through advertising.(1)
Speculation aside, it is not the intents of the corporations that we
should fear (or rely on); it is the nature of the technology that makes
us vulnerable. An independent, nonprofit, open-source social network
does not address the main problem here, which is internet-based, public
social networking itself.
More recently, the trend is to be able to Tweet, Facebook and Google on
your phone. Mobile phones are generally attached to our identity and
track your location at all times, while allowing remote monitoring of
voice, video (which is generally ubiquitous on phones these days) and of
course any worldwide web traffic. While this information would nominally
require a warrant, in recent years AT&T has complained that the
National Security Agencies requests for these wiretaps have become
overly burdensome on the monopolizing telecommunications company,
indicating that such wiretapping is far from rare.
Other than building networks, spies like to build profiles of
individuals. Today’s mobile phones and computers are walking profiles on
many Amerikans. Even if you don’t use a “smart” phone, if you don’t
separate your work from your persynal life you are exposing yourself.
Every time you do a Google search while logged into Gmail, or access
information through Facebook, your activity is connected to your
identity. And of course, any internet activity from home is connected to
your IP address.
Stop Worshipping Bourgeois Culture
There is a tendency that jumps on every trend, saying “if only we could
get an ad that looks like that, if only we could get a Facebook group,
if only we could produce hot music” then the masses would listen. A real
revolutionary culture needs to be setting the trends and not just
copying bourgeois forms and relying on bourgeois institutions. Without
independent institutions of the oppressed we have no power over the
message we put out and the work that gets done in the name of social
progress.
Again, for those who were born into this culture of social networking
through the internet, you need to rethink your relationship to the
bourgeois institutions that shape your life.
We are not arguing against using the internet or other technology. We
are only pushing people to understand the potential and likely
consequences before they use it. MIM made great inroads by being a
trendsetter in online publishing. Today’s technology makes it easier and
safer to use the internet, if you study how to do it correctly.
If you don’t have the patience to learn internet security or don’t
believe in it because “Big Brother knows all,” then don’t go online.
There should be Maoist work that is not known to the internet. We must
combat the thinking that “it can be Googled, therefore it exists.” The
internet should be a place to study, to find answers, to debate and to
agitate in the realm of ideas. It should not provide a quick and easy
snapshot of who we are, what we’re doing, when, where or how many we
are.
Wannabe Documentarians
While cell phone cameras were celebrated in the exposure of the
assassination of
Oscar
Grant by BART police in Oakland, California, they are also helping
the police do their job every day. It is hard to go to any sort of
political event without being surveilled by dozens of unidentified
people. This means that 1) the pigs can sit on their asses looking at
Indymedia websites and watching amateur videos on YouTube to see who is
frequenting what events, and 2) undercover (or not) pigs can be very
open in their efforts to record people at these events.
Closed meetings should not even allow cell phones in the proximity of
the meeting. That may be difficult for events open to the public, but
people should not be able to come in and record without any
accountability. And if you want to record your own events for later use,
don’t record people that have not given their permission. People
recording the audience should be treated with suspicion and should be
stopped.
All of this is connected to who are our friends and who are our enemies.
Anti-imperialist comrades should weigh the costs and benefits of doing
outreach at events that are swamped with strong Amerikanism. The
cell
strategy should be studied and applied in a way that one only
organizes with those one knows. And one should learn to swim in the sea
of people they find themselves amongst. The sea we have to swim in in
North America is a sea of white nationalism, so blending in isn’t always
appealing, but it is that much more important. Relying on the masses
means looking to the world’s majority who have an interest in
overthrowing imperialism. Being part of the struggles of the real masses
cannot happen through Tweets and Facebook groups. Building a strong
movement requires keeping a distance from these institutions of the
oppressor and building our own infrastructure.
I’d like to comment on special needs yards and the lack of
revolutionaries therein. I am on such a unit, except here in Oregon they
call them mental health units. Of course there is also protective
custody but, I’m not addressing PC units in this letter.
I am a former racist skinhead who left the movement decades ago. Since
then I began a movement to get others out of the white supremacist
movement by educating them on issues of white privilege, aspects of
class war and anti-imperialism. I was extremely successful and my
efforts have been recognized at a national level. Someone needed to come
forward to educate these misguided individuals. I did. Now I pay the
price.
As the result of some robberies I was sent to prison. Almost immediately
I was recognized and repeatedly attacked while staff lied and covered up
a conspiracy to keep me on mainline knowing I had received several valid
death threats. Finally I was moved to an institution where I could walk
mainline and placed on a “mental health” unit. I am on such a unit
because I am a revolutionary. Now I am in a system where often the line
between the white power groups and the guards is blurred. In a white
privileged and dominated imperialist nation what more could one expect?
Everyone in the Oregon DOC is too busy fighting one another to join
together to accomplish anything and it is my experience that there are
just as many rats and snitches on mainline units as there are in the
“mental health” units here in Oregon. The mentally dead are everywhere.
You find them not only amongst the ranks of snitches or rats but, also
in those who are brainwashed into believing in the false theory of race
or racial superiority.
It is not until whites of the lumpen can realize the privilege the color
of their skin affords them in the united states and throw away the
doctrine of race or racial superiority that we can join ranks with our
brothers and sisters and truly become revolutionaries in the non-violent
struggle to end oppression in the U.S. and the doctrine of oppressive
imperialism our nation forces upon the innocents of the Third World.
I am writing this in response to the California prisoner who wrote the
article
lLumpen
Loyalty Dividing the Struggle. What divides a struggle is
divisiveness. In the context of his communique he missed several points,
among which are: (1)being an informant does not render the struggle
against a mutual enemy moot, (2) in the context of numbers,
(i.e. strength) it is largely irrelevant whether someone is a rat or
not, and (3) the known rat criteria - “known” based on what? What
exactly are the circumstances and/or conditions under which one told?
Just because one is SNY, PC, PS or whatever does not mean they are rats,
disloyal or even unreliable. This approach is the equivalent of saying
that everyone in prison is not only a criminal, but guilty of exactly
what the state has convicted them of. No self-respecting prisoner,
convict or revolutionary would undermine their own ideological base by
entertaining such an idea.
The state manipulates purists by slinging labels and rumors. They send
hard working, devoted soldiers and revolutionaries to Protective Custody
(P.C.) as a tactic to discredit them and undermine the struggle. The
state knows that the purists will readily turn on their own kind and, by
extension, the cause, by using emotionally charged propaganda to incite
divisiveness. It is one of the most frequently used weapons by our
mutual enemy.
I have no love for the enemy - rats included - but if you are a soldier
devoted to a cause, then you must be able to exploit the enemy’s
weaknesses and turn their strengths against them. An informant is only
as good and useful as the information is he’s given… or gets hold of.
I have more than 30 years in prison and I have many years of political,
legal and social struggles behind and before me. Purism has one fatal
flaw - it is not in a black and white world where it can be put into
action. And ideology is only as good as its applicability to the
conditions in purposes to address.
MIM(Prisons) responds: This letter is referencing a debate that
has been going on in the pages of Under Lock & Key for
several issues now, over whether or not people on SNY or PC can be part
of the revolutionary movement. MIM(Prisons) stands firmly with this
comrade and against the purists who will trust the label of the
prisoncrats.
by a West Virginia prisoner December 2010 permalink
In the Nov/Dec 2010 ULK article entitled
Lumpen
Loyalty Dividing the Struggle, the question was posed by a prisoner
in California: “How could you consciously and intently give known rats a
forum or conduit to speak and voice an opinion as if he was an honorable
and principled man? When has it been right in history to accept
traitors? Never!”
to which you responded with the following quote from MIM Theory 6, The
Stalin issue: “It is scandalous to Christians to think of a world
without timeless moral values such as loyalty, honor and integrity –
characteristics that God supposedly places in each of us once and for
all time, especially in the more hard-line Protestant religions
upholding predetermination. These moral characteristics are then
referred to by the Christians as our ‘moral character.’ The Stalinists’
opposition to such an ideology leaves the Christians aghast and hence we
‘Stalinists’ appear as ‘amoral’ to those who claim timeless values.”
You said this was “a quote that came from an article that defends Stalin
for overseeing the killing of innocent people in an effort to eliminate
spies and infiltrators during the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union.”
And that “In Stalin’s day the principal contradiction was the fascists
versus the first socialist state in modern history. Spies could have
brought the destruction of the Soviet Union.” And going further to say:
“In the U$ prison movement, the principal contradiction we face is the
conflicts between the lumpen themselves.”… “Today we are in a much
different condition in our discussion of spies and snitches.” And “that
even the concept of being ‘principled’ is dangerous. Principled is too
often viewed as picking a position and sticking to it no matter what,
right or wrong. But Stalin only stuck to one principle, and that was to
serve the people by building socialism.”
But I ask you, how are we in different conditions in our discussion of
spies and snitches?! Do you have any idea what these rats have done to
MIM, and to us, their fellow comrades? I do not think you know the
gravity of the effects these snitches are having on our movement. Not
just the prison movement, but the anti-capitalism/imperialism movement.
These are the same people (snitches) who are steadily selling out their
fellow comrades for little to nothing. They prevent us from moving
forward with a prison movement of any kind. These same rats are part of
the reason that prisons are censoring mail when it comes to certain
things like MIM, ULK and USW literature. They tell prison officials that
we are using the beliefs of MIM and communism to start a gang of
radicals. These same rats also tell them that we are affiliated with
white supremacists, and/or other gangs. That’s why they will not let MIM
literature in certain prisons, and are trying to stop it in others. It
is also why they use MIM and communist literature to validate some
people as gang members. And this is part of the reason that the prisoner
from California was so upset in his letter.
And like Stalin who was trying to protect and establish socialism by
weeding and killing all possible spies and infiltrators, we prisoner are
trying to do the same exact thing. By eliminating and alienating all
rats for the better of the prison movement, for the better of communism,
for the better of the struggle against the imperialists.
This is why we have to be principled, honorable, loyal to the end, and
oust anyone who isn’t for the greater good of the movement in every
sense.
The minority you spoke of when you said: “despite the rhetoric of honor
and loyalty, it is a minority who really live by these ideals. Perhaps
that minority are more reliable comrades in the revolutionary struggle.
On the other hand, we are trying to mobilize the prison population as a
whole on behalf of the interests of the oppressed, and we believe that
through education people can change their character.” If it was not for
that minority, like the prisoner from California who wrote in, there
would be no prison movement. These rats can do nothing for you or our
movement.
I understand that we (prisoners) need to unify and come together under
mutual issues and work together, or there will be no prison movement to
speak of, and that we must combat the ultra-leftism that prevents
broader unity. But as you stated “of course there is a reason why not
working with the pigs is a common principle among certain populations,
while most Amerikans turn to them whenever they need help. No good can
come for the oppressed form working with the pigs, but we must apply
this principle in a way that best pushes the struggle forward.” And
that’s exactly what we are doing by eliminating and weeding out these
rats. And what we are doing is applying the principle in a way that best
pushes the struggle forward. Because by leaving the rats who are against
us unattended is detrimental to the prison movement, because of how they
are helping prison officials to shut us down, and make it as hard as
possible to make any headway. And the repercussions that most are facing
at the hands of prison administrations due to the lies and false intel
that the rats give them, leaves a great many prisoners weary about
taking up the prison struggle movement, because the punishments that the
prison administrators have been handing out.
The rats do this because they know they can get favors for turning in
gangs, gang members, or united groups which prison officials look at as
semi-gangs. And because they know that prison officials look at anyone
who is trying to cure the injustices of a prison as a trouble maker or
threat to security. They deem you a threat to security just so they can
lock you up, and keep you from unifying. They also view anything such as
MIM as a threat to security because it’s something that helps us come
together on a common ground and unite. Believe it or not prisons pay
rats for info if they are a good rat, just like they’d pay a prisoner
for working in the kitchen, laundry, etc.
So how can we trust them, how can we unite with them without detriment
to our cause? We can’t! If someone is tearing the prison movement apart
like this, just imagine how dangerous they would be in a revolutionary
situation. These rats are the same to us and the prison movement as the
spies and infiltrators Stalin was trying to eliminate.
And though I do agree with you about the fact that some of them can
change with education, the fact still remains that they can not be
trusted! If they are stabbing us in the back now, and sabotaging the MIM
prison movement, even if they do change with the proper education,
what’s to say or stop them from defecting on us later on down the road?
I don’t know about everyone, but that’s a chance I’d rather not take.
People like these rats we talk about are what have always helped the
fascists and slimeball capitalist thrive into the scum they are today.
Now you can see the point of not trusting these rats. It’s not just
weed, tattoos, alcohol, etc, they’re snitching on, it’s everything we’re
trying to build. I’m not saying don’t let these people have a forum to
voice views from, because every bit of input we get form each other
helps to energize us, and keeps us motivated, but there is no way we can
ever unite or accept them as true allies in our struggle.
MIM(Prisons) responds: Our position on SNY yards continues to
raise a point that none of the responses to it address head on. We
maintain that SNY yards are not just used to house snitches who are
afraid for their lives but also to house people trying to escape the
violence of every day prison life. Violence that prisoners as a group
have the power to stop. We know that there are snitches in SNY who are
working for the pigs, but we also know that there are plenty of snitches
in general population also working for the pigs. We don’t want to work
with these people. But we do want to work with prisoners who are
genuinely interested in the anti-imperialist struggle wherever they are
housed.
Our moralist comrades behind bars suggest that we should not work with
snitches as if it’s as easy as just looking at a return address to know
who is on the right side of the anti-imperialist struggle. We have found
this is not at all true. In fact many people who believe themselves to
be anti-imperialists and whose peers would not call snitches, are
actually working against the revolutionary struggle in one way or
another. We have to judge everyone by their practice.
At the same time, we must remember that Lenin kept a known enemy on the
central committee for the money that he was contributing to the
struggle. Similarly, if a known snitch is sending in good
anti-imperialist articles or art then we should use these articles or
art. We can’t control who claims to represent MIM(Prisons) behind bars,
we have to leave it to the masses to see through posers by reading ULK
and noticing the contradictions. But we do trust ULK to represent itself
and so we will send it to any prisoner who wants to read it, and in some
cases we might even turn some snitches to the side of the revolution.
Lastly, we need to address the question of trusting someone who was on
the wrong side in the past. It is incorrect to judge people only for
their past. We need to look at everyone’s current practice. We can bear
in mind past mistakes and guard against backsliding into old ways. But
the Maoist prisons in China demonstrated the correct way to reeducate
enemies of the people and then trust them to come out of prison and
actually work in the interests of the people.
I recently received the book I requested from you, Agents of
Repression by Ward Churchill. Man, that was one of the most
enlightening books on the problems inherent in political work that I
have read up to this point. Yea, it doesn’t matter if they “officially”
disbanded COINTELPRO operations or not. It still continues, especially
in the ever increasing decadence of the U.$.
I’ve since passed the book on. I will try to get it into the hands (and
heads) of as many dissidents as possible, whatever their nationality or
political persuasion. A lot of people are disgruntled with the actions
and policies of the U.$. government, people that you may even have
opposing interest with, yet the biggest hindrance to the realization of
any of these various groups’ political objectives is the ever-powerful
merchant class of the U.$.
I find a lot of dissidents are completely ignorant to the fact that once
they begin organizing, recruiting, agitating, or educating people to a
non-status-quo way of thinking, they become a target. Whether they like
it or not, know it or not. To fail to prepare against dirty ol’ uncle
sam’s counter measures is disastrous.
I was released in 2006 and jumped straight into political activities.
Some government interference was expected and even noticed, like
surveillance, harassment and the like. A lot of the tactics in the book
I had strongly suspected but had little or no proof, or was not sure
enough about to take irreversible action.
In any case, to sum it all up, one of our members was manipulated into a
position that resulted in the deaths of two members. Then a high level
plant set him up to be arrested but resulted in the deaths of two more
detectives who tried to apprehend him. The member died in a hail of
police bullets, 62 I believe.
I realize all this is extremely counterproductive and only served as
justification to expand their expense/infiltration budget on us. I’ve
seen the best of these FBI plants/informants. I know one who instigates,
solicits, and sometimes, even orders crimes as his dual role as a
ranking organizational dissident, then sends in dirty ol’ uncle sam to
arrest the criminals, that are only criminals by virtue of the fact that
they followed his direction! Yea, I’ve had this same plant try to kill
my pregnant fiance, and only succeed in causing the death of the child.
I can show you statements where this same FBI plant is being snitched on
by another snitch that doesn’t know he was set up by the FBI plant or
even that he is an FBI plant. Yet he explains in detail how the FBI guy
is beating pregnant women with bats, etc.
I know no charges will ever be filed against their own, and personally,
if I could regain my freedom I would rather charges were never pressed;
I certainly wouldn’t testify. I see it as a great contradiction to turn
to the same system you hate to seek aid in the dissolution of, to turn
around and seek their help in the pursuit of justice. I’ll get my own
justice, if I can ever regain my temporary freedom.
MIM(Prisons) replies: There have been a number of stories in the
last couple weeks of young men being arrested on terrorism charges after
being set up by Federal agents to commit violent acts. Knowing the art
of war and understanding the stage of struggle we are in are easy ways
to avoid many attacks used by COINTELPRO. Real comrades prove themselves
through consistent hard work and dedication, not through acts of
bravado.
The pigs at CCI Tehachapi SHU are monitoring revolutionary
correspondence and materials coming through the mail; not censoring but
delaying them by as much as three to four weeks. This specific instance
was a personal experience, but it can be concluded that if one
individual’s revolutionary activity is being monitored, then all
revolutionaries may be monitored.
Due to a medical condition, I must be taken out of my cell and to
medical for a weekly injection which I use as an opportunity to butter
up loose-mouth pigs and gather intelligence, catching a general idea of
the internal condition of the pigs’ camp. Never at any time have I
mentioned or alluded to my revolutionary standpoint or activities in any
way.
While going to medical this past week a pig made a very revealing
statement inadvertently, immediately tipping me off that my mail was
being monitored, specifically what I’d mailed to MIM(Prisons) the
previous week. The pig’s statement could not have been reaching because
it contained the word “revolution” and related content of a letter to
MIM(Prisons).
Let this be a warning to revolutionary activists and comrades across the
U.$. injustice system, and California concentration camps in particular,
that even if there is no censorship at your facility, if you participate
in any serious revolutionary activities, then it’s sure to be monitored.
Practical steps may be taken to combat this issue, such as working with
and notifying MIM(Prisons) of censorship issues while going through the
grievance and court system, if able to do so. Keeping eyes and ears open
to detect if you are being monitored is not difficult to do.
If it feels like you are being watched, then you are. Remember, paranoia
can be the better part of prudence in the control unit.
[This is a belated resolution from the MIM(Prisons) 2010 Congress.]
Overall, MIM(Prisons) stands by the
Resolutions
on Cell Structure passed at the last MIM congress in 2005. After 5
years of putting that resolution into practice there is experience to
sum up and questions that still need to be answered.
The theoretical basis for the cell structure is that the strength of a
centralized party comes into play when vying for state power, whether by
elections or otherwise. That is not in the cards for Maoists in the
imperialist countries at this time. Maoism is a minority movement in the
First World and will continue to be so for the foreseeable future. This
makes it even more important that we utilize our strengths and shore up
our weaknesses.
One of the main lessons to take from the cell structure resolutions is
that “[w]e oppose having geographic cells come into contact with each
other face-to-face. Infiltration and spying are rampant when it comes to
MIM. The whole strength of having a locality-based cell is that it is
possible to do all the things traditional to a movement. The security
advantages of culling people we know into a cell are lost the moment we
slack off on security and start accepting strangers or meeting with
strangers face-to-face.” We find it frustrating that critics of what
happened at etext.org as MIM faced repression are willing to ignore the
lessons of those setbacks.
At the last MIM congress in 2005, they spoke of a “MIM Center” that put
out the newspaper, among other tasks. Soon after, there was no
MIM
Notes newspaper, followed by the degeneration of the original MC
cell and finally the shutting down of their last institution, the
website at etext.org.
One of the challenges of small cells is developing and maintaining line.
Much work has been done, and if every new group or every revolutionary
had to start from scratch, we would never advance. That is why when
etext.org was repressed, MIM(Prisons) posted an archive of the MIM site
on our website. While we still do not have a regular newspaper for the
movement as a whole, the website is a crucial reference for us all.
Fraternal organizations do not agree on everything; they agree on
cardinal principles that are determined by the conditions of the time.
The etext.org site is not something Maoists must agree with 100%, but
there is no doubt that it is still the most comprehensive starting point
for any Maoist organization in the First World.
Democratic centralism is important for security and for political line
development. Yet until we are organizing on a countrywide basis, there
is no need for democratic centralism at that level, not to mention
internationally.
In guerilla warfare, the cell structure has been applied in a way that
was hierarchical so that action cells were separate from each other, but
each cell could be traced to the top of the organization. This relies on
a centralized organization or center. While MIM mentions such a center
being based around MIM Notes and etext.org in their 2005 resolutions, we
do not see the need for this center given the current circumstances. As
we have recognized before, certain ideological centers are bound to
exist based on the law of uneven development. Yet such centers are not
structural, but fluid, based on the type and amount of work done.
All that said, there is an inherent contradiction in the cell strategy.
Since organizing strategy and security tactics are not dividing line
questions, once the cell strategy is adopted and full decentralization
has occurred, it is possible for cells to change their line on this
question. Even the majority could do so and a new centralized party
could push remaining cells to the periphery. Since we work to build a
movement and not our individual organizations, and our work is already
on the periphery, we should not be concerned about the impacts of such a
move on our organization. It is, however, worrisome to the extent that
we see our comrades opened up to attacks through faulty security.
Part of accepting cell strategy is distinguishing between cadre work and
mass work. The self-described anarchist movement is able to mobilize
large numbers in mass work while abhorring centralized organization. We
should learn from their example, while not succumbing to liberalism in
our security practices or abandoning scientific leadership.
Getting the correct balance of cadre work and mass work will be more
challenging with a cell structure. There is no way to impose a balance
on the movement as a whole without a center, but we can pay attention to
what is going on around us and get in where we fit in. Leading cells
should not be shy to point out where the movement needs more investment
of resources.
One amendment we would make to the “Resolutions on Cell Structure” is to
cut the suggestion that a one-persyn cell “in many ways… has the least
worries security-wise!” Certainly, one-persyn cells should maintain high
standards for admitting others. However, the value of
criticism/self-criticism on the level of day-to-day work is something
that is stressed within Maoism, and we’ve benefited from in our own
practice in MIM(Prisons). We still need democratic centralism with the
cell structure to provide crucial discipline and accountability. The
criticisms we can give and get from other cells will be limited in
nature if our security is correct. And we have seen how one-persyn cells
can degrade or disappear quickly.
I would like to say something about the
article
by the drop out skinhead who became an SNY. It is good that this person
is involving himself in MIM because MIM can remedy some line questions
concerning progress. This is i believe the underlying issue with the
snitch question, and many other strategies.
Here’s a valuable quote,
“Our public relations policy is based on anonymity, which is to say,
attraction rather than promotion; we need to always maintain personal
anonymity at the level of press, internet, radio etc. Anonymity is the
spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place
principles before personalities. Understanding these traditions comes
slowly over time. We pick up information as we talk to members and visit
various groups. By following these guidelines in our dealings with
others, and society at large, we avoid problems. We still have to face
difficulties as they arise; communication problems, differences of
opinion, internal controversies, and troubles with individuals and
groups outside the fellowship. However we apply these principles, we
avoid some pitfalls. Many of our problems are like those that our
predecessors had to face. Their hard won experiences gave birth to these
traditions, and our own experience has shown that these principles are
just as valid today as they were when these traditions were formulated.
Our traditions protect us from the internal and external forces that
could destroy us.”
From where? Mao Zedong’s red book? No, a narcotics anonymous pamphlet!!
But does it really matter where it comes from, or the merit of the
content?
This is my objection to going SNY. Only because these three letters
mean, “you have told the police information”. You have strengthened the
hand of the police by information. You have dialed 911 and gave 411. For
me, that’s the foul. Now of course the gangs that these people walked
away from have a different objection than this one. But it is very
common for gangs to split, or have coups from within, or be taken over
by other gangs… examples abound! John Gotti killed his own boss to
become the boss, Lucky Luciano made peace treaties with the NY mafias
and founded ‘Murder Inc’ - his own army.
Such putchism and naked self interest is not at all a new feature of
gang activity and reality. Neither is martyrdom an estranged element of
nazism or fascism. Both Mussolini and Hitler were killed in 1945. The
drop out skinhead seems to have had a “disillusionment” about his
experience with other skinheads. Can it be possible, that a group that
espouses an ideology of national socialism, that claims to be not a gang
but a “social movement”, can surprise its own members with hidden
tenants and protocols? This person talks as if he was conscripted or
enslaved by his own group and liberated by SNY.
A motif that puts principle above inter-personalism and sentiment that
does not connect to the concepts above about anonymity. Rather avoiding
line issue progress, but material canteen, coffee pack type motivations.
Disconnected from the imperatives of duty, social progress and
revolution! Fascism claimed to be and was revolutionary! Marx explained
that the bourgeois has historically played quite a revolutionary role in
relation to the establishments that come before it. But also explained
how these bourgeois revolutions did not benefit or literate the 3rd
estate, the proletariat or the international proletariat. The 4th of
July being such a type of bourgeois revolution… while they held others
as slave.
SNY (Sensitive Needs Yard) or PC (Protective Custody) is now very
popular in prison. I think that many prisons have a majority of PC
prisoners over mainline. Both of these concepts come from the cops! and
many prisoners have let these concepts creep into their consciousness
and thinking. As MIM theory 4 said, “many of these people use FBI
reasoning in their politics. You hear the cops foster little comments.
For example, The C/O’s start calling our property shit.”Inventory this
shit” , “get your shit”, “here’s your shit”, and like monkeys, inmates
picked it up.”I’m waiting to get my shit” Stop thinking and talking like
the pigs! The C/O’s started calling a cell a house. ” go back to your
house”, “is this your house?” inmate monkeys,” in my house”…it’s not a
house! it’s a coffin! “Gassing” is another coin they want to circulate.
A little system of mnemonics that they propagate, which we swallow up!!!
In effect letting pigs create culture for us.
A prevalent concept i hear those going to SNY is “I want to back away
from the politics”… Like Cuban refugees who ask for political asylum,
but come to Miami and work with the CIA agents to overturn a political
movement. Like the bay of pigs. That is not “Apolitical” like they say.
Who cares what people say? Science is not about opinion and subjective
narratives, but observation, strict non-fiction. The drop out skinhead
relates that SNY’s are more violent than mainline now, and i agree!
Statistically SNY is one of the most violent of yards now. It wasn’t
always like that, and we can identify factor’s as to how this came
about. The DOC lowered its standard for letting people go to SNY. Before
you had to snitch, nowadays all you have to do is ask!! This is because
the DOC created a legal category of protected prisoners for its own
administrative convenience, but when challenged in court became more of
a burden than anything else. Opening up lawsuits and legal dilemmas…
They just opened the doors.
I want to caution righteous activists who hate snitch logic, to not
think of all PCs as weak cowards, some are, but know some PCs are very
dangerous! They do exercise routines also, and many pack heat
religiously as we do… Sammy “the rat” Grivano, was not a wimpy sissy at
all! but a determined fierce weasel, who killed more than anyone he
snitched on. Just like cops are not all fat pigs, some are committed
murderers. Like Johannes Mehserle, straight executioner! You have to be
like Karl Marx, who acknowledged the impressive violence of the
bourgeoisie, but qualified this violence with a philosophical analysis
of who it served, and what it meant for the workers of all nations,
never denying the inextricable link between thought and action - Theory
and Practice. Defining violence by its direction and and constitution.
MIM will help all of its students develop a deliberate super-structure,
not insulate concepts like the pigs! The pigs use slight of hand mind
control, MIM has criticism and demonstration instead of this. SNY’s need
to look hard at their own political line and ask whether or not they
push revolution, and what kind of revolution, and not act like rag dolls
caught in the currents of a river they chose to jump into. That’s real
politics not identity politics.
– a California Prisoner
D12 for MIM(prisons) responds:This comrade’s understanding
concerning the need to stay away from identity politics is good. It will
guard the movement, and prevent revisionism. This comrades reason for
seeing the SNY as only those who give 411 go to the SNY is not accurate.
The CDC has long held the policy to segregate prisoners from the general
population who have criminal records which would warrant their assault
on the general population, or due to the identity of the prisoner, i.e
pigs, k9s, and so forth. Due to the gang problem the CDC has had to
change its policy to allow former gang members who would be assaulted,
or killed if they remained on the general population, as well as
prisoners who enter the prison and face a choice of being forced into a
prison gang or to follow the underground rules set up by the prisoners.
The comrade states certain examples of cooperation between those engaged
in the unlawful market and the state, lets not forget that Lucky Luciano
aided the U.$. against fascist Italy. The main point that needs to be
remembered is that while these lumpen organizations have the greatest
potential for revolution in a parasitic imperialist country. They are
still lumpen, and have not shed their lumpen skin to stand with the
Third World proletariat as communists. The very nature of the lumpen is
predatory, not to the degree of the big imperialists, but they have a
lot of work to do. Many lumpen groups have revolutionary concepts as
their teachings, yet you still see them killing each other or
distributing drugs in to our neighborhood, robbing and stealing. It is
not surprising that many people join these lumpen organizations and are
let down, causing them to look for a way out.
History has shown that the revolutionary rhetoric espoused by the LOs
where brought in by those in the 60’s and 70’s who were involved in the
struggle for liberation. What we see is revolutionary nationalism within
the oppressed nations that are engaged in capital enterprise. We have to
recognize that it is the will of the state to play prisoner against
prisoner; to disrupt the educating and organizing of prisoners for
revolution. It’s the state that is ready to welcome prisoners and offer
them a “safe” place to do their time when the prisoner breaks a rule
that would warrant his assault or death from a lumpen organization. Or
to welcome those who no longer see any logic in participating in these
LOs due to political difference even when they tried to stay and
convince the others within their org. It is not MIM(Prisons) policy that
a prisoner should risk his safety when the prisoner doesn’t have to.
You’re more valuable alive, on the streets, and if in prison then you
should be able to move around and do political work. Engaging in
chauvinism and ultra-left behavior sets the movement back. While there
is a point when one should not cooperate with the state, we will not
encourage a persyn to stay in the SHU serving an indeterminate term,
when that persyn is a communist revolutionary and the tide is on his or
her shoulders. What matters is what one does as a communist
revolutionary. The line that one has will prove them to be for or
against the people. A friend or our enemy.
My question to MIM(Prisons) is this: how could you consciously and
intently continue to give known rats a forum or conduit to speak and
voice an opinion as if he was an honorable or principled man? When has
it been right in history to accept traitors? Never!
Let’s keep shit non-fiction. Everybody who betrays their own can never
be trusted. MIM(P), you’re setting a dangerous precedent that should not
be emulated in any regard. Those that will compromise all their beliefs
and yet find a voice to be heard shows the weakness of the cadre. Real
folks see them for who they really are: parrots, poison and cancerous
cells. When one practices deceit long enough they begin to believe it.
The truth and lies reverse roles. A coward dies a thousand deaths, a
real one only once.
What separates the best from the rest is the loyalty, honor and dignity
one has for self as well as those of like stature.
MIM(Prisons) responds:
“It is scandalous to Christians to think of a world without timeless
moral values such as loyalty, honor and integrity – characteristics that
God supposedly places in each of us once and for all time, especially in
the more hard-line Protestant religions upholding predetermination.
These moral characteristics are then referred to by the Christians as
our ‘moral character.’ The Stalinists’ opposition to such an ideology
leaves the Christians aghast and hence we ‘Stalinists’ appear as
‘amoral’ to those who claim timeless values.” –MC5. Anna Larina. MIM
Theory 6: The Stalin Issue, p.53.
Ironically, this quote comes from an article that defends Stalin for
overseeing the killing of innocent people in an effort to eliminate
spies and infiltrators during the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union.
Today we are in much different conditions in our discussion of spies and
snitches, but “honor” and “loyalty” are still used to attack us. We
would say that even the concept of being “principled” is dangerous.
Principled is too often viewed as picking a position and sticking to it
no matter what, right or wrong. But Stalin only stuck to one principle,
and that was to serve the people by building socialism. Everything else
is determined by a scientific analysis of conditions.
In Stalin’s conditions, the principal contradiction was the fascists
versus the first socialist state in modern history. Spies could have
brought the destruction of the Soviet Union. In the U.$. prison
movement, the principal contradiction we face is the conflicts between
the lumpen themselves. Without resolving these conflicts and building
unity around the mutual interests of the imprisoned population, there is
no prison movement to speak of. So we must combat ultra-leftism that
prevents broader unity.
We know Special Needs Yards (SNYs) are not full of scientific
revolutionaries, because that’s not true anywhere in the U.$. prison
system today. We know that many prisoners use snitching as a way out to
get more for themselves. Yet as more and more people go to SNY to opt
out of the bullshit warring that the pigs have promoted, the pariah
status given to SNY prisoners is playing right into the hands of the
state’s divide and conquer strategies. As long as general population
insists on playing by the pigs’ rules, SNY will continue to be an outlet
for those who don’t want to be pawns in the game.
Despite the rhetoric of honor and loyalty, it is a minority who really
live by these ideals. Perhaps that minority are more reliable comrades
in the revolutionary struggle. On the other hand, we are trying to
mobilize the prison population as a whole on behalf of the interests of
the oppressed, and we believe that through education people can change
their character.
Of course, there is a reason why not working with the pigs is a common
principle among certain populations, while most Amerikans turn to them
whenever they need help. No good can come for the oppressed from working
with the pigs, but we must apply this principle in a way that best
pushes struggle forward.
The lumpen have an ideology of self-sacrifice and dedication that comes
from their experience as oppressed people. While we often print articles
that reinforce this lumpen morality when it reinforces the unity of the
oppressed against the oppressor, we must also address its weaknesses.
When the idealism of the masses holds back progress, we must push hard
for the acceptance of scientific truth.