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.
In a much-anticipated ruling, Federal District Judge Kenneth Hoyt struck
down Texas Deparmment of Criminal inJustice’s (TDCJ) attempt to
terminate the Brown vs. Beto consent decree. The Brown
vs. Beto case goes back to 1969 and it stemmed from a federal
action brought by a TDCJ prisoner, Bobby Brown, who fought hard against
the racist oppressors in Texas who would unmercifully beat any prisoner
who declared himself a Muslim. At the time Brown was a member of the
Nation of Islam (NOI) and it was members of the NOI and Fruit of Islam
who provided material support, legal support, and physical security to
Brown and other Muslim prisoners who were victims of religious
discrimination and racial hate. It is noteworthy to mention that even in
the year 2014 over 95% of the Muslims in TDCJ are New Afrikans (Black).
There is a racist dynamic to Texas’s ongoing oppression of Muslim
prisoners.
The Brown vs. Beto consent decree was put in effect in 1977 and
it provided a wide array of rules and policies geared toward destroying
any obstacles to Texas prisoners’ right to practice Islam if they hoose.
In 2012 under the auspices of the Prison Litigation Reform Act, TDCJ and
the state of Texas petitioned the court in an effort to terminate
Brown claiming they had policies in place which provided ample
opportunities for Muslim prisoners to practice their faith. This was a
lie and a ruse concocted by the racist oppressors to show onlookers an
illusion of freedom. In reality, TDCJ has established rules and policies
which infringe grossly upon Muslim prisoners’ right to practice. We are
monitored as if we all are potential terrorists; our visitors and
volunteers are harassed and overly scrutinized; TDCJ Correctional
Officers regularly disrespect the Muslims and bait them in physical and
verbal confrontations. This is the reality on the ground!
However, the main point Judge Hoyt made in his ruling was that TDCJ has
purposely constructed rules which made it impossible for Muslims in
Texas prisons to practice. Moreover, he stated the agency has
established a practice throughout the system where they show
preferential treatment to Christian prisoners while marginalizing,
ridiculing, and obstructing Muslims from practicing their religion. All
this amounts to a blatant violation of the Establishment Clause of the
1st Amendment in the U.S. Constitution. Judge Hoyt ruled that
Brown will remain intact and told them to make the necessary
changes ASAP.
Instead of rectifying the problems in Texas state Attorney General Gregg
Abbott is ordering an appeal of the judge’s ruling. So there is an overt
collusive effort by the Attorney General and the Executive Directory of
TDCJ to violate Muslims’ U.S. constitutional rights. This is the type of
violation the Department of Justice - Civil Rights Division is supposed
to protect U.$. citizens from suffering, yet they have hesitated to get
involved! It reminds me of that young Black man who got beat in the face
with a hammer by Georgia prison guards. We must come to the
understanding that these imperialists, whether they be white or Black,
Democrat or Republican, do not have a vested interest in the lumpen
underclass who are trapped in Amerikkka’s Gulags.
I can not tell you how many grievances I have written citing Religious
Discrimination and they have come back with that same old bullshit
reply: no policy violated, no further action warranted! And the entire
time these racist oppressors were violating my constitutional rights!
This once again highlights the corruption and hypocrisy of TDCJ! This
grievance program in Texas is a sham and a farce.
I urge all of you reading this piece to join United Struggle from
Within, and fight these racists! Expose the abuse, murders, and
violation of civil and humyn rights. We must make a collective push to
call for an all-out investigation of TDCJ and the Texas Senate Criminal
Justice Committee as they too are culpable in the rampant, systemic, and
pervasive abuse of Texas prisoners.Comrades, I want you to understand
that racism is a byproduct of capitalism/imperialism. Unifying in order
to smash imperialism provides a serious blow to racism. Texas as a whole
is an imperialist stronghold and the overt racism that exists throughout
the state is a testimony to that!
I’m checking in from RJ Donovan Correctional Facility in California,
where the conditions of confinement are getting harder and harder to
tolerate. Here there are a few comrades in the administrative
segregation unit (ASU) from both sides of the prison system, mainline as
well as Special Needs Yards (SNY), studying and struggling together to
overcome the oppression of being punished for submitting inmate appeals.
The pigs that run this unit are giving the prisoners who stand up for
their rights half issues of already substandard meals. They also move us
from cell to cell at least five or six times a month, and always into a
cell with someone who is mentally challenged and disruptive. Some cells
are painted with human defecation and urine, and the staff doesn’t
bother to clean them or provide any cleaning supplies. Some comrades
have been physically attacked and have had their personal property
passed out to the rats and snitches.
While these are not infrequent unconstitutional violations here, most of
the prisoners are afraid to speak up. The theory and actions these
officers display is truly terroristic in nature, and the officials allow
them to act with impunity.
So I have made it my mission to lead as well as organize and participate
in a campaign to stop these abuses here and wherever my feet touch
behind these walls. These abuses range from stealing our personal
property to creating false charges against us, from denying pens and
forms to withholding our mail and yard time, while they sit in the
dayroom and eat the state issue items missing from our lunches and
dinners.
On a better note, our study group is up to ten in just one week as the
brothers of all races and both sides hear us dialogue about the
commonality of our situation. Like the brother in ULK 33, I too
am SNY and I know there are good strong comrades over here on this side.
What people don’t understand is that a lot of youngsters have a theory
that older brothers “are like leaves on trees” meaning the older ones
have to be knocked off so new leaves can grow. This is wrong thinking
and a self-defeating tactic.
It’s hard for me to understand how some people are fighting to end
oppression and hate, knowing the role that the media plays in it all,
and then they allow a designation of SNY by the statesman architect of
hate and repression to separate us because we’d rather leave our
organization and have a chance at parole than stay and end up taking a
young brother’s life.
I spent 15 years in the prison system of the 80s and 90s. I’ve done my
dirt, put in my work. I’m not an animal who just follows his base
instincts. I’m a leader and I’m standing for all these brothers who put
their faith in my leadership. A true leader will never send one of his
warriors to do battle while he stays behind. Further I stand on the ten
point program established by the
Black
Panther Party and we hold the principles of Under Lock &
Key to be of the utmost import.
I truly believe in what the Black Panther Party said when they stated
that the power of the people is greater than man’s technology. But the
people’s power has to be organized. As the Vietnamese people, who began
their war for liberation with only bows and arrows, we must begin ours
with pen and paper. And just as they defeated the most powerful military
on earth, with determination, internationalist politics and organization
by all oppressed people inside and outside these walls we’ll be
victorious as well.
MIM(Prisons) adds: We have published a number of articles on the
debate
over SNY prisoners and we stand with this comrade in arguing that
solid anti-imperialist comrades can be found on SNY yards. We look at
someone’s history of political work and political line rather than the
label that the administration gives them. This comrade’s call for unity
is in line with the
United Front
for Peace in Prisons which brings together individuals and groups
behind bars to build peace and unity against the common enemy of the
criminal injustice system.
Although the World Cup has been over for some time I feel compelled to
comment on Mexico’s national team.
When Mexico beat Croatia to make it to the round of 16 there were
“disturbances” in Los Angeles. As Los Angeles has a high concentration
of people who see themselves as Mexicans and not Amerikans, this goes to
show that there is a separate, oppressed nation in the United $tates.
But this disturbance alone doesn’t prove this. As J. Stalin said, “A
nation is formed only as a result of lengthy and systematic intercourse,
as a result of the fact that people live together from generation to
generation. But people cannot live together for lengthy periods unless
they have a common territory.”
Mexicans in the United $tates, and especially in California, are
distinct from Amerikans as well as from their relatives in Mexico. As
Latinos are becoming the largest population in the United $tates it’s
even more important that a national party be formed to better serve the
Latino nation, as the United $tates is incapable and incompetent to
serve the needs of the Latino people in North America.
MIM(Prisons) adds: We agree with this comrade that there is a
separate nation within U.$. borders that is comprised of the primarily
indigenous people of what was northern Mexico, and includes many
descended from immigrants from Latin America as well. Though it is far
more complicated than just some World Cup festivities, this comrade is
correct that we can see evidence of the separate nation in many areas of
culture. We have come to call this nation the Chican@ nation, and this
is the subject of a book that is scheduled to be released at the end of
2014: Chicano Power and the Struggle for Aztlán. Write to us to
get on the list for a copy of this important book.
With the ongoing fighting in the occupied territory of Palestine (Gaza)
the death toll rises on both sides. However, there’s a savage
lopsidedness to it as the Palestinians take the toll of death. Even more
savagely is its children and civilians taking the carnage of
indiscriminate bombs being dropped by Israel.
In the face of this fighting, U.$. Secretary of State John Kerry gave a
press conference in which he more or less stated that, “there can be no
meaningful peace without the disarmament of Hamas.” Not only is this
hypocritical but who in their right mind will lay down what arms they
have when faced with an enemy that not only has a standing army but an
air force, navy, special forces and drones which lend an uneven hand to
the fighting. The IDF (Israel Defense Forces) have stated that they will
not stop until all of Hamas’s underground tunnels are destroyed.
More to this unevenness and inequality is the rhetoric spewing from
I$raeli and Amerikan media that Hamas is terrorist and is causing the
suffering of the Palestinian people. As if Hamas was the one dropping
hundreds of bombs from helicopters and jets. Israel is a settler nation
and therefore will stop at nothing to see the destruction of Palestine
and the ceasing of resistance from the people.
The resistance of the Palestinian people is not without precedent.
History has shown what nations that occupy a territory will do:
slaughter and genocide of the occupied nation. All media pundits say
that I$rael has the right to defend itself, however what about
Palestine?
MIM(Prisons) adds: We agree with this comrade that oppressed
nations have the right to defend themselves against imperialist
agressors. Though we would go even further and say that those oppressed
nations don’t stand a chance at independence until we can take on the
imperialists themselves. The imperialists will not allow individual
nations self-determination and independence, even if those nations try
to exist without threatening imperialism. Cuba provides a good example
of this. But imperialism is building its own demise by putting the
majority of the world’s people in the camp of oppressed and exploited,
with a material interest in overthrowing imperialism. One at a time
nations will gain independence, and united these nations will take on
imperialism globally.
Click to download a PDF of the Oregon grievance petition
Mail the petition to your loved ones and comrades inside who are
experiencing issues with the grievance procedure. Send them extra copies
to share! For more info on this campaign, click
here.
Prisoners should send a copy of the signed petition to each of the
addresses below. Supporters should send letters on behalf of prisoners.
Director of the Oregon Department of Corrections (ODOC) 2575 Center
Street Salem, OR 97301
U.S. Department of Justice - Civil Rights Division Special Litigation
Section 950 Pennsylvania Ave, NW, PHB Washington DC 20530
Office of Inspector General HOTLINE PO Box 9778 Arlington, VA
22219
And send MIM(Prisons) copies of any responses you receive!
MIM(Prisons), USW PO Box 40799 San Francisco, CA 94140
PDF updated May 2012, July 2012, July 2014, and October 2017
I read over
the
letter from our Polunsky comrades. This is what I recommend. Often
it helps to attach an I-60 with your Step 1 grievance and ask the
Grievance Officer for the processing number of your grievance. If you
have this number you will have a direct reference to track a grievance.
This helps discourage grievances being “misplaced.” It’s also handy when
you write Administration Review & Risk Management (ARRM) about the
unit not addressing that particular grievance. For important and serious
grievances it is useful to start them like this:
I file this grievance to exhaust all administrative remedies as required
by the Prison Litigation Reform Act to bring forth action under section
1983 of Title 42 of the United States Code.
It basically says: I’m going to sue you! It’s not a guarantee but
such an intro may make the grievance officer take it more seriously.
In regards to the officers who confiscate personal property and then
destroy them, I’d like to direct our comrades to the
Texas
Grievance Guide, in particular the part concerning filing criminal
charges against officers. If an officer takes a prisoner’s property
without giving a confiscation form stating the reason for confiscation,
then that is legally theft. It is also a violation of your civil right
to due process (which is also a criminal offense). Of course you will
need some kind of proof that the item existed and was taken. Get
prisoners to write affidavits and reference any camera numbers (if there
are any). The criminal charges may not stick because pigs don’t eat
pork, but it may give them a wake up call and make them think twice.
I agree that our grievance petitions are having no effect with the
people we are currently sending them to. I feel it more beneficial to
send them to ACLU Texas or the DOJ. Our grievances and complaints are
systematically neglected and denied. It is an Orwellian system, a
labyrinth of closed loops, a facade. We need to push for the TDCJ
Independent Oversight Committee which will place our grievances before
an unaffiliated organization with the ability to monitor TDCJ to ensure
that it abides by statutory law and its own policy.
We shouldn’t hope sending the grievance petition alone to the DOJ or
ACLU is enough. We must promote and campaign this proposed bill to our
freeworld friends and family. I see no other way to break these closed
loops.
MIM(Prisons) responds: Write to us for a copy of the Texas
Grievance Guide. While we agree with this comrade that a TDCJ
Independent Oversight Committee would bring progress for Texas prisoners
in their fight against abuse and injustice, this too is not enough. We
must learn from history that reforms like this one are followed by DOJ
tricks and adjustments to work around the new policies and continue the
same old abuse and repression. While we should still fight for these
reforms, and use the battle to educate and unite people both behind the
bars and on the streets, we must do this in the context of the broader
struggle against the criminal injustice system. We should never mislead
people to think that one reform or one house bill will make the change
we need to see to create a true system of justice.
In today’s world we’re seeing the courts and media minimize the fact
that U.S. prisons are run by criminals worse than the so-called worst
confined within them. They have attempted, and have succeeded to a
degree, in demonizing the prisoners being tortured and thereby
desensitized the general public on that subject.
This is why it also seems the jury in the court of public opinion is
still out regarding what process is due, and how the experimental
implementation of political censorship known by its official misnomer
“Obscene Materials Regulations” is already in progress on San Quentin
State Prison’s (SQ) four death row Security Housing Units (SHUs). The
normalization of censorship in all its forms continues right before our
eyes in SQ and beyond.
Consider how an invasion force imposes their will upon their victims
preserved alive. One of the first things it does is knock out all means
of communication. After installing a puppet governing body it then
promotes its own agenda through the mass media. The San Quentin Antenna
Cable System (SQACS) can be described as a one-sided propaganda bomb
with a signal jamming warhead. It is a weapon of mass corruption in the
hands of terrorists embedded in the Calincarceration Corrupted Peace
Officers Association (CCPOA) and other affiliates using the CDCR as
their puppet to lord it over in the micro-societies of prison. Their fee
for this is deducted from your paycheck, education, and social services
for the disabled and elderly.
The SQACS (AKA SQTV) consists of expensive technology similar to that
used by cable providers. Most cable companies receive their programming
via satellite and then rebroadcast it on frequencies that boxes atop
your television can receive. SQTV also consists of 14 converter boxes
and several DVD players. As you may know, these devices require your TV
be on channel 3 or 4 to operate. However, the SQACS rebroadcasts each on
a different frequency. It even rebroadcasts free over-the-air digital
signals on different frequencies in QAM (cable mode) and the UHF band.
Not only are the 14 now obsolete converters a huge waste of electricity
(they’ve been on 24/7 nearly 5 years!) they also block free over-the-air
broadcasts on the VHF channels they’re rebroadcasted on. Contrary to
popular belief prisons don’t make money for the state. Only those
working at prisons make the money and since the SQACS wastes YOUR money
and not theirs, they don’t care - especially when it can be used to give
them job security.
Public broadcast stations KQED and KMTP are just two stations
multicasting from Sutro Tower that are currently being
blocked/restricted by the SQ administration under the guise of technical
difficulties. I argue it is actually intentional because these provide
programs such as World News, Democracy Now, and even documentaries
denouncing the horrific practice of long term torture by indefinite
solitary confinement in California prisons.
San Quentin is by no means the only California prison using this
technology to censor over-the-air broadcasts that don’t fit their
oligarchy’s agenda. Radio stations received via these systems at various
SHUs have reportedly cut out as the hunger strikers were being commended
for their peaceful protest. The broadcast was then turned back on when
the CDCR representative began demonizing it.
As stated in the essay “Free your mind; reversing the effects of prison
censorship” by S. Muhammad Hyland, “The bottom line is simple. The
institutional restrictions on revolutionary political material are in
place for a reason: to keep us from learning how to go about securing
our freedom, and destroying the system responsible for our lack of
success in Amerika.”
MIM(Prisons) adds: Unlike most U.$. prisons found in rural areas,
San Quentin is right in the Bay Area where, as this comrade points out,
there are many sources of progressive information on television and
radio. It is quite damning that the state finds it necessary to censor
these channels, which anyone just outside of the San Quentin compound
can watch and listen to just fine. It speaks to the truth that prisons
are all about social control. And it underscores the importance of not
just having control of our own independent media, but also fighting for
our First Amendment rights to distribute and share that media.
Distribution networks are constantly threatened by bourgeois interests,
from eliminating public bulletin boards, to the attempts to prioritize
corporate website traffic on the internet, to blocking television and
radio stations within prisons. Under Lock & Key is perhaps
the most censored news
source in the Amerikan Criminal Injustice System, and we are always
engagedin ongoing battles in many states. We need more jailhouse lawyers
and legal help on the streets to help with this fight.
Grade A to the East Block from S.W.A.C. Struggling with all my
might No official record of a 10 30 Nobody has flown a kite
I’m back in the SHU II D.R. I’m talkin bout CDCR noise Back in the
SHU II D.R.
Been away so long they hardly knew my face No parade or welcome
home Bought a good guitar could not afford clear-case T.V. coming
on state loan
[Chorus 2:] I’m back in the SHU II D.R. No sun on the out alone
yard, boyz Not in the SHU II I’m in the SHU too Back in the SHU
II D.R.
[Verse 3] Now the Ukraine psych doctor Anderchuck She brings me
peace of mind No psycho pills make me scream and shout But
Jasmine’s always on my mi mi mi mi mi mi mind [so it’s on!]
“It shows that circumstances make men just as much as men make
circumstances.” - Karl Marx in the German ideology
Can we say that a new phenomenon is brewing behind these walls? We can
all see the new level of political consciousness in California prisons,
where prisoners are resisting the repressive policies of the California
Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) in a more collective
manner. Change has been slow, but progress is evident. The root of this
is us prisoners with a little political and legal education to enlighten
others and at the same time inspire others to participate in progressive
action.
The California hunger strikes weren’t spontaneous demonstrations against
injust human rights violations in the Security Housing Units (SHUs), but
rather carefully laid out plans to get outside attention and assistance.
It was years of suppression that brought a few together to gather many
in a common purpose that serves all of our interests. Some men are
mentally broken while others carry on in these SHU conditions.
This is but a simple dialectic; or two sides of a contradiction forming
a unity. On one hand we have those who deteriorate under these
conditions and seek any way out, while on the other hand we have those
prisoners who adapt and at the same time find ways to better themselves
by educating themselves in law, reading good books, or picking up
hobbies to keep themselves occupied. It is through these individuals who
know the conditions in the SHU who are capable of creating campaigns for
abolishing its policies, especially the gang validation policies that so
many prisoners fall victim to.
Exposure and propaganda play a vital role on our behalf. This is where
USW comrades come in, not just as advocates for human rights, but as
advocates of an overall anti-imperialist campaign, as everything is
connected to the imperialist system. The SHUs within CDCR are an aspect
of imperialism, utilized for social control. And the oppressive
conditions within are nothing more but to assert more social control
behind prisons. It is through current events that this new phenomenon is
manifesting a wave of politically conscious prisoners creating new
circumstances. More validated prisoners are leaving the SHUs but more
are taking their place. It is possible that one day through a collective
effort the gang validation will be dismantled entirely and a SHU cap may
be part of our future. I think it is.
After taking some time off from writing insightful editorials from a
first worldist perspective for Turning the Tide, A Journal of
Inter-communal Solidarity, Michael Novick once again assumes the
mantle of vociferous defender of the Amerikan labor aristocracy as
revolutionary vehicle pre-eminent in
his
review of Divided World, Divided Class by Dr. Zak Cope.
While we can appreciate his endorsement of this valuable text as
“required reading for would-be revolutionaries,” our differences are
unfortunately as vast as the property-less petty-bourgeoisie is corrupt.
The MIM camp recommends this book for its global class analsyis, based
in Marxist economics, that explains the class divide between the First
World core and the Third World periphery.
Interestingly, it has been noted that Turning The Tide has taken on
something of a Third Worldist veneer ever since some searing
criticisms
of Novick and his assessment of the Maoist Internationalist Movement
by a USW comrade last year.(2) Despite TTT’s recent focus on the New
Afrikan nation and their expressed support for the struggles of the
oppressed worldwide, it is the underlying political line of Novick and
company that we must really examine to see where we have unity. We
understand that to the untrained eye, as well as to those new to
revolutionary politics, the difference between the Maoist
Internationalist Movement and the Amerikan left are less than apparent,
so we will draw them out here for educational purposes as well as to
defend against opportunists and social chauvinists of varying stripes;
as without revolutionary theory there can be no revolutionary movement.
Novick calls on fans of egalitarian politics to take up critical
thinking when it comes to the topic of global political economy and the
stratification of labor under capitalism. However, he attacks and
undermines Marxist political-economic analysis, the most critical and on
point analysis of capitalism itself, without proposing anything in its
place. He does this in the first few paragraphs of his article when he
states that Dr. Cope comes to his conclusion that the First World labor
aristocracy is bought off via “underlying Marxist assumptions of the
labor theory of value”(1) and “through sometimes hypothetical
formulations of what the value and price of that value ‘should’ be…”(1)
He then states that Cope says, “the only workers who are ‘exploited’ are
those who directly produce ‘surplus value’ in agricultural and
industrial production of commodities.”(1) These lines imply a critique
of Cope’s (and Marx’s) methods, but he does not say so outright or offer
an alternative framework for such an analysis.(2) This is nihilism, and
leads to subjectivism. Without an objective analysis as our guide we
just let the masses do what feels right. We agree with Novick that to
lame apologists of First World workers “Cope’s book is a very difficult
read…”(1), but not because of the so-called “long sections of abstract
mathematical calculations”(1) as Mr. Novick puts it, rather because
bitter pills are always hard to swallow.
For those who are unaware, Novick claims to use dialectical materialism
as a tool to analyze social phenomenon, yet this has not led him to the
conclusion that the principal contradiction in the United $tates, or the
world for that matter, is imperialism vs. the oppressed nations.
Instead, Novick believes that capitalism never developed past its
competitive phase, therefore it is his assessment that the principal
contradiction on a world scale is still that of the bourgeoisie vs. the
proletariat, or rather one between the so-called 1% and supposed 99% –
itself a non-sensical and anti-scientific assessment. As such, Novick
doesn’t believe that there are any oppressing or oppressed nations, only
oppressed and oppressing classes; yet he denounces our “petrified
defense of the principal contradiction.”(3)
Michael Novick also complains that “Cope essentially liquidates or
obliterates class contradictions within both core and peripheral
states”(1), but what Cope really obliterates is the First World’s
romanticization of the labor aristocracy as anything but revolutionary
with his scathing class analysis of First World workers. Novick also
makes an empiricist error when he asserts that Dr. Cope’s analysis is no
good to us in the United $tates because “his orientation and experience
is primarily European”(1) hence his “understanding of settler
colonialism and the existence of oppressed and colonized peoples within
so-called ‘core’ countries as the US, Canada, etc. is limited.”(1) It is
quite odd that Novick complains that Cope does not give us a complete
class analysis of who are our friends and who are our enemies within the
United $tates. Despite the fact that this book is about global
imperialism, and written by a non-Amerikan, it spends a good amount of
time explaining class and nation and the development of racism within
the context of U.$. society, as it is today the heart of imperialism.
Novick does not address the points made by Cope, only complains that it
is too general. In addressing the discrimination and oppression faced by
the disadvantaged in First World countries, Cope states that “economic
betterment for people in the rich countries is today intrinsically
dependent on imperialism.”(4) And that’s the rub right there.
Whatever contradictions exist within imperialist society, apologists for
the labor aristocracy like Novick must come to terms with that reality,
or risk fanning the flames of militarism and even fascism.
A little further down Novick states that “classes and class
relationships are based on material reality…”(1). This much is true,
however, Novick takes us deeper into the jungle of idealism when he
writes, “… but these are social phenomenon based on the element of
consciousness and practice as well,”(1) emphasis on the element of
consciousness. However, Marxist philosophy teaches us that in general it
is social being that determines social consciousness, and not the other
way around as Novick implies. He has a hard time reconciling the
existence of revolutionaries in the United $tates and an analysis that
labels the U.$. an exploiter country. For a dialectical materialist,
this is no mystery. A more succinct explanation to the phenomenon and
structure of class is given by Cope below:
“The term ‘class’ does not only refer to a social group’s relation to
the means of production - that is, to property ownership or it’s absence
and nor does it simply refer to any category relating purely to the
technical division of labor at the societal or workplace level. Rather,
class denotes a dynamic social relationship corresponding to the system
of ownership, the organization of labour and the distribution of
material wealth as mediated by ideological, cultural and political
institutions and practices. Above all, class is the product of political
practices, with the relationship between the state and class struggle
revolving around the issue of class domination.”(4)
Not surprisingly it is always the ideological that is principal in
matters of revolution when it comes to Amerikan “left” circles. And with
that Novick ends his weak attempt to disprove the scientifically proven
correctness of Zak Cope’s book. What then proceeds in his review is more
existentialist questioning of both nation and class contradictions in
the United $tates and the world when the answers are already readily
apparent. Novick offers his persynal musings as proof positive to his
readers that the class contradiction in the world is more important than
the one of nation. But in order to deliver the people’s consciousness
you can’t just answer the tough questions with more questions. Rather,
you must deliver the people’s consciousness with revolutionary practice
summed up in rational knowledge; as without revolutionary practice
theory is meaningless. As such, Novick inadvertently proves the
principal contradiction correct with his confused explanation of class
contradictions in Amerika.
Something else that was disappointing in his review of Divided
World was the complete omission of Cope’s thesis on how the First
World petty-bourgeoisie, the labor aristocracy in particular, is a huge
reservoir and potential breeding ground for fascism drawing from within
the dispossessed petty-bourgeois class an army to smash the national
liberation and socialist movements. This is odd since the majority of
Anti-Racist Action’s work has previously been fighting the various
neo-Nazi organizations currently attempting to re-organize on a massive
scale. Perhaps we can surmise that Novick saw something else in Cope’s
book that is damning and detrimental to First World “revolutionary and
socialist” movements? Perhaps another bitter pill to swallow?
We highly recommend Divided World, Divided Class to up and
coming revolutionaries and communist youth looking to get a firm grasp
of First World labor and it’s dialectical relation to the real
proletariat centered in the periphery.(5) Divided World, Divided
Class does an excellent job of explaining the parasitic nature, as
well as the fascist tendencies of the First World labor aristocracy.
