Under Lock & Key

ACROSS

4 ___________ is a failed organizational strategy that enjoys much support among activists in imperialist countries who romanticize the call to arms and quick attacks on the enemy
6 Cultural nationalism was sometimes called ___________ nationalism by Huey P. Newton
10 A ________ party provides the necessary leadership for a revolutionary movement
11 The belief that everything is a matter of opinion
13 The 13th amendment abolished slavery except as a __________ for a crime
17 A system of landlords and serfs
18 Focusing your time on things that give you glory or that you somehow find personal pleasure in is called what?
19 A ____________ is anything available for sale or exchange
23 Was the farthest historical advance towards communism (3 words)
25 The only time it is correct to evaluate a practice in relationship to an idea is within that _____________.
27 ________ Science positively asserts that the earth once existed in such a state that no man or any other creature existed or could have existed on it
28 Where it does impose repression, the ruling class may gain the popular support of the bourgeoisified workers in favor of what? (3 words)
29 A practical matter of fact way of approaching or assessing situations or solving problems
30 Under this the state nominally owns the means of production
32 Organizing societies according to peoples’ needs
33 Love of one’s country
34 The group that pays others less than the value of their work therefore making a profit off of them
37 The appropriation of surplus labor from workers by capitalists
38 At one time was a state capitalist country
44 They often believe in a kinder, gentler capitalism
47 Before his death Mao said he only wanted to be remembered as a what?
48 A major part of the imperialist state used to prevent self-determination of oppressed nations. (2 words)
49 __________ is a crucial issue for all serious revolutionaries that has recently received popular attention following the release of information by an NSA whistle-blower
50 To believe in ________ is to believe in mysticism.
51 The class of people who own enough property that they would not have to work to make a living
53 The highest stage of capitalism
54 The system under which non-workers control the production of wage workers
55 This class is rarely employed, often living as parasites on other proletarians
56 The dominance of one group over others

DOWN

1 A pig is a __________ officer
2 Developed the theory that a new bourgeoisie develops within the Party during socialism
3 The knowledge and application of knowledge on how to get from A to B the fastest
5 The most advanced stage of the science of revolution to date
7 Belief in one’s own group being superior or of higher priority
8 _______ is a group of people defined by their relations to the means of production and their relationship to other people
9 A made up classification of people into groups to justify oppression through ideas of inferiority
12 Working class that benefits from the imperialist world’s super exploitation of the Third World.
14 The Amerikan government has been promoting _______ _____ ________ politics for decades
15 The ____ - ______ refers to people who are exploiters but also must work
16 The belief in, or promotion of, ideas without basis in fact or without depth
20 Once labor is done
21 Marx said capitalism will ___________ solutions to homelessness, hunger, illness, pollution, and war.
22 Rashid wrote the “Don’t ______ the Guards” handbook
24 When _______ fails it is the fault of the vanguard party
26 Democratic _______ is a key question of organizational strategy that helps to ensure both the security of the organization and the appropriate application of the scientific method in testing out line and strategy across the organization
29 The majority of the world’s ______ have a material interest in revolution.
30 Extra profits derived from workers paid less than what is necessary to reproduce their labor (ie. feed their children)
31 Abolition of power of people over people
35 A concept based in reality that is defined by a group’s land, language, culture and economy
36 Who got Russia out of World War I?
39 This type of persyn commonly downplays class struggle and overplays the struggle to increase production and technical progress compared with political views.
40 The ____________ originated in the industrial revolution which took place in England in the last half of the 18th century
41 They are free to sell their labor power (see 40 down)
42 The arrest of this group in China marked the restoration of capitalism.
43 _________ are imprisoned at rates 10 times those of whites for drug charges.
45 The condition of anorexia is a manifestation of gender __________
46 An ideology based on pre-scientific thinking
52 ___ ____ culture is a more promising battle ground for the oppressed today than Egyptology or even kwanzaa.

Click here for puzzle solution

Don’t mess with Tax-us, is the motto they use,
subliminal injections, that our struggle will lose.
Don’t play into that Billy Box shit,
Anything will crumble, if strategically hit.

In the State of Tax-us, it’s the Tax-us two step. One forward, two steps back!
Pitting brown against white, which turns white against Black
To keep colors warring on each other,
So all groups are incapable to witness brothers.

I read the article, of fledgling plight,
Driven to point of frustration strategically attempting to fight.
Comrades gathered on a yard, to voice grievances to the man,
A peaceful sit-down was their ultimate plan.

Their custody is minimum, the industry has everything to lose,
many are unsure of tactics riot squads will use.
The days are gone where they’d brutalize one man’s race,
Now they’ll spray you with chemical gas and fold you up as a suitcase.

But majority tomorrow, they’ll file to chow hall, sit where they’re told,
to be fed rubbery pancakes that are usually cold
Then be rushed back to wings fueled for a productive day!
Forced to meet quotas, compensated no sort of pay.

Afraid to be written a bogus disciplinary case,
To be held in check, while confined to this place.
You’re housed in concrete boxes! like sperm specimens in a culture dish,
Checked by intimidation, you’re afraid to resist.

Then informers infiltrate, exposing what you plan to initiate,
forcing all backwards to stagnated state.
You’re one man, in many who burn with a vision we can achieve,
Now, we must convince other contingents to unconditionally believe.

Now locked in Ad-Seg we passed on the revolutionary flame,
You let them extinguish it so who you gonna blame?
What can they take from us now? or futuristically do,
So, ask yourself, are you capable to follow thru?

Comrades are all I got left, recently I kissed parole goodbye!
To charge the State of Tax-us it’s our final do or die
I’m going down swinging, gonna give one hell of a fight
It’s up to us comrades to unite for human rights

One voice alone, can easily be quelled,
They’ll strip you of everything to be locked in an Ad-Seg cell.
But multitudes of voices they’re forced to hear,
United comrades of all nationalities is what southerners fear.

They try to silence our voices, ignoring our needs
Are you afraid to be beat down, for the struggle, to bleed?
There’s a fever spreading across Tax-us, they cannot contain
Comrades who are infected become immune to the pain.

It makes my mind wobbly
Why do the state bother?
To sterilize the needle during a lethal injection?
Are they concerned about the condemned contracting an infection?
Or are they just achieving a sadistic judicial erection?
Even the concept of sanitizing executions is mindless!
Who thought of killing them with kindness?
Humanity, need to redefine justice and blindness
It’s sad! Humane mercy in the form of an alcohol pad
The executors leave a lot to be desired
It’s like they be pissing on a person, on fire
Why do they sterilize the needle? But in the RHU they won’t feed us
“Our society teach revenge killing is okay and our society expect murder to go away?”
I got 28 yrs in, my mind could be a little feeble
Because, I thought about flying needles and ask
myself, “why didn’t Noah just swat the two mosquitoes and save the world. From a lot of diseases!”
Why? When it come to death they sterilize the needle!
But in the RHU they won’t feed us
Another death penalty procedure?

I’m considered an “enemy of the state”
because I refuse to participate
so they incarcerate trying to manipulate
and mandate my mind state, solitary
confined my mind refined but not reformed
nor refrained. I’ve maintained
an intellect apart, with the intent to
never relent, staying relentless showing
no repentance, insistent that I be
able to live life in the true sense
of liberty unequivocally.
Allow me to enlighten
I don’t mean to frighten only to heighten
your ability to see clearly
I only hope you hear me. Society projected
whole communities neglected, infected,
mistreated, abused and used left
confused I’m not amused nothing more
to lose so I spread the news of revolt
a jolt to the very foundation of this
hypocritical nation they are enslaving
I have faith you can envision, listen
and pay attention,
their invention of detention
another form of oppression, take a
lesson start asking questions check
my aggression due to their arrestin’
instead of stressin’ I’m pressin’
forward, on and beyond the class war
straight to the core of this division
life in prison a manifestation the
incarceration of a whole nation. They’ve
got us all under surveillance
and if we show resistance we’re
silenced with violence repressed
it’s stressed that we fall in line
and be brainwashed one at a time
the status quo has got to go a new
format needs to be executed because
in order for us to exist we must
resist, ready and equipped. They’ve
got this country voting on shows and
topics that are superficial. But where’s
our initial on something politically
official?! Their superimposition is apparent
and transparent with no comment,
committed to categorizing, the use of
hypnotizing with lies refusing to hear our
cries. Time to rise everyone please stand
and demand allow us all to be indelible
a considerable voice to expel, propel and
procure a promising future that will nurture
and educate instead of violate.
The vice that will annihilate our rights
without question should be cropped
and stooped!

Just recently we had an incident here at the prison. There was a boycott from eating and a refusal to lockdown, leave the yard, or go to our bunks. There were a few fires started and prisoners made it hard for officers to do count.

As good as it might have felt to buck the system, this “two day” short lived revolution seemed to be useless because there was no bottom line or demands, and they ended up putting us on more restriction than we were on before. They feed us 2 cold bag lunches for breakfast and dinner, no visits, no church, no club activities, no yard, no one works, no phones (now restored), no outgoing mail (now restored), no library or law library, and officers give you disciplinary reports for every minor thing you do (passing food, sharing books, talking after 10pm, etc.).

The outcome of this “lost cause” shows the importance of studying MIM’s concepts and ideology. One thing it did do is show the oppressor that the oppressed do have the will and intent to stand up. But a revolution that’s lead by emotions will never win.

Another issue at hand here is the refusal to let prisoners out on parole because one person who was let out murdered 4 people (he did his full time, no parole, and he asked for mental health help before he was let out but they refused him.) Now the system wants to make us do more time on our sentence (80% instead of 50%), and make it a longer wait to go to work centers. They haven’t taken into consideration all the successful parolees and how broken the system is in preparing prisoners for society.

One thing we must keep in mind is that “a man who stands upon the corners of the paths and points the way, but does not go, is just a pointer and a block of wood can do the same.”

MIM(Prisons) adds: This comrade raises a very important point about how we must learn from our failures as well as our successes. And in the case of this protest, as well as many other spontaneous acts of resistance in prisons across the country, the lesson is often that we need to do more to build our level of political knowledge and study theory and strategy so that we can formulate the best approach to our local situation. There is an organizing strategy called focoism that attempts to promote and utilize the spontaneity of the masses to launch a revolution. There is a long history of spontaneous attempts at protest and the focoist strategy of revolution around the world that show us this approach generally leads to more repression, not to victory for the oppressed. We have a responsibility, as revolutionary leaders (and this extends to all readers of Under Lock & Key) to learn from this history and apply these lessons to our work today. MIM(Prisons) has a lot of literature on spontaneity, focoism and organizing strategy. Write to us to request study materials on this topic.

In Ironwood, apparently new regulations have come down from Sacramento ordering staff to remove all signs from the doors depicting race. There were signs on the prison cage door indicating race: blue was for Black, red for Mexican, white for white and green for other. Now the designation for race is Security Threat Group (STG).

There was a recent lockdown (a melee between Sureños and New Afrikans) in one of the housing units. A status report stated that the investigation has been concluded and prisoners who are not members of the affected STGs will resume normal program. In the body of the report the affected STGs identified were Bloods, Crips and Sureños. The next day only whites and “others” were released for program. When asked about the non-affected Afrikans and the non-affected Mexicans, we were informed that because the non-affected prisoners shower in the same showers as the affected prisoners that makes them associates. So effectively all Afrikans and Mexicans are locked down (according to “race”).

Up until the argument between a Mexican and an Afrikan on 30 November 2013, the nationalities on this compound got along. Communication has resolved the issues and things are back to normal except for the administration milking the lockdown. The influential people are reminded of the word that came down from their folks up the way and have been striving hard to maintain the peace.

MIM(Prisons) responds: Group punishment is one of the unjust practices that prisoners who have been organizing around humyn rights in California have demanded an end to. And it goes to show how the state systematically oppresses people based on their “race” in 2013.

The last paragraph of this report is particularly important as it exemplifies the hard work that has been put in by members and leaders of various lumpen organizations across California to create peace and build unity in the fight against the criminal injustice system. We are happy to hear that even while the prison is trying to divide prisoners and set them against one another, prisoners are working to maintain peace. We encourage prisoners everywhere to get involved in the United Front for Peace in Prisons (UFPP) which was initiated in 2011 to build peace and unity among prisoners to advance our struggle against the criminal injustice system. This prisoner’s letter demonstrates the first principle of the UFPP, Peace: “We organize to end the needless conflicts and violence within the U.$. prison environment. The oppressors use divide and conquer strategies so that we fight each other instead of them. We will stand together and defend ourselves from oppression.”

Wild child running wild
Got to find my way through this darkness
Got to find my way back to the streets
Been living in these hell holes for way too long

Wild child running wild
Tired of these pigs having their foot on my neck
Tired of being locked in a cage within a cage
Running back & forth like a dog behind a fence
Tired of being told what to do and not to do

Wild child running wild
Got the blood of my ancestors running deep within my veins
Harriet, Nat Turner, Denmark Vesey, Malcolm X and many more
Always got my feet planted and head held high

Wild child running wild
Why do these pigs keep trying to tame me?
Why don’t they set me free into the wild?
Because by nature that is where I am supposed to be
“Free & Unchained!”

We can’t get anything done around here like getting a toilet or sink fixed. There are 800 cells on this yard and in 5% of them these basic amenities don’t work. We literally have to fill mop buckets of water to flush down waste. Three of these pods leak water from the ceiling on to the day room 24 hours a day. It’s always flooded and this combination is physically and biologically hazardous.

MIM(Prisons) adds: As we explained in ULK 34, prisoner health is a systematic problem. We have documented cases of lack of adequate nutrition or even safe uncontaminated food, brutality that leads to permanent physical health problems, contaminated water, medical neglect and other sources of health problems throughout the prison system. This problem with toilets and other leaking water is yet another example of prisons creating conditions that lead to significant health problems for the captives. Sanitation is a basic problem that we typically see in Third World countries, but this is just one of many examples of poor sanitation in Amerikan prisons. While individual cases like this could be addressed by the prison, we know that inadequate medical care and lack of basic sanitation are conditions the oppressed face around the world, and not something that imperialism has an interest in fixing.

On 27 November 2013 the mailroom at Lovelock Corr Center received from the U.S. post office mail that was addressed to me and sent from the National Catholic Council on Addiction. It included a letter with a 2014 calendar and a catholic prayer book. I received an unauthorized mail notification saying it was not from an approved vendor. On 7 December 2013, I was told to either pay to send it out or they would dispose of it. I am an indigent inmate so sending it out is not an option.

How is the Catholic church not an approved vendor? When I approached the prison chaplain all I was told was “oh it’s only a book”. I guess as an inmate our faith has no meaning. I would love to see the free world’s reaction if it were their prayer book and the government took it from them and destroyed it.

MIM(Prisons) responds: While we don’t think that Catholic books and calendars are doing anything positive for the revolutionary struggle, we print this letter as an example of the ridiculous mail policies found in Amerikan prisons. Censorship is generally targetted at political organizations, particularly those like MIM(Prisons) which are educating prisoners about the criminal injustice system and helping them to organize to fight for their rights. But we have seen basic educational material like dictionaries and law books rejected by the censors. And so this rejection of religious literature further proves that prisons are being used as tools of social control and punishment, not centers for rehabilitation. For this reason, we oppose all censorship of mail in the prisons and encourage prisoners to fight these unjust policies by filing grievances, and taking it to court if needed. Ask for our guide to fighting censorship in prison for more information on this.

Everyday I sit back and listen to numerous captives blab on and on about how “business aggressive” they are. The thing that boggles my mind is that when the swine do something to them they bitch and cry but accept the oppression. When another captive, however, commits the smallest infraction only then does the aggression come out, but even that is limited to cell warrioring and threats of violence. These displays of traitorous behavior make it frustrating not just for myself but for other revolutionary educators trying to show fellow captives a brighter path.

I admit I have little patience for those who constantly complain and antagonize the swine but leave their actions to just that while the swine continue to oppress the captive collective. I have heard a couple of captives talk on the run about plausible actions to address the oppression, but just as soon as such revolutionary thought is introduced it is struck down by another captive and this brings the end of the conversation. It is extremely disheartening to hear such things as that. It is also disheartening to hear captives say that we have no choice but to accept the oppression. I don’t understand this at all because these are the same individuals that spout off about old school hip hop like NWA and Public Enemy who urged the masses to fight the power and say fuck the police.

What are we getting out of fighting amongst ourselves? Nothing but reverse progression that plays in the swine’s favor, thus opening the doors for more oppression and lessening the value of revolutionary thought. Why can’t we use this so-called aggression to fight the real enemy, the grey suit swine? Even more so, why do so many speak out against squaring off against the enemy? It’s not just backwards aggression that is a hindrance to revolution, there is also selfishness, greed, disdain for learning, gambling, and narco addictions, all playing a part to hinder revolution. I say gambling and narco addictions for the fact that a majority of captive-on-captive violence is due to gambling in some shape or form, and narco addictions cloud the mind from being open to revolutionary education and thought.

In my work concerning capitalism as applied to gulag functioning I urged captives to strike against commissary and I will reiterate my stance as commissary also provides captives fuel for conflict against other captives. When the swine denies a captive commissary nine times out of ten the captive will hang his head and slink off in defeat. But if a captive doesn’t make commissary and is in debt to another captive, the owed captive spouts off in aggression and violent temperament. Thus commissary is swine approved extortion and needs to be boycotted as it is a detriment to captive unity and education.

I’ll close this with my main point, we are all captives no matter race, creed, gender, inside affiliations, outside affiliations, etc. Oppression and exploitation do not discriminate, we are political prisoners who have no hope as long as we remain ignorant to truth and embracing of the poison the authoritarian elitist swine continually feed us. Captives are not supposed to be enemies to other captives, aggression is supposed to be used to counter elitist oppression, but the elitists use our own aggression against us to fulfill their agenda to neglect and oppress. To fight this we must truly gain revolutionary insight and educate fellow captives in revolutionary politics.

MIM(Prisons) responds: The first point in the United Front for Peace in Prisons statement of principles is Peace: “We organize to end the needless conflicts and violence within the U.$. prison environment. The oppressors use divide and conquer strategies so that we fight each other instead of them. We will stand together and defend ourselves from oppression.” This comrade highlights some of the ways that the system turns prisoners against each other, wasting their energy on counter-revolutionary fights that could be put into organizing against the criminal injustice system.