[This letter was just received from one of the few comrades who has
continued to stick to the pledge to strike until the 5 core demands were
met. While it is unclear why others in Pelican Bay have stopped
striking, this comrade is pushing for a re-orientation that addresses
the torturous conditions of long-term isolation head on while reaching
out to the general prison population.]
18 October 2011 - Well, they had a busload, about 1/2 of it, full
leaving Pelican Bay State Prison for Corcoran. All hunger strikers, and
all descendents from south of the border, Mexico and further, with only
a few whites. How they chose us out of all is difficult to say. They
immediately isolated me, and in the last few days have gone to great
lengths to convince me the strike is over. The CDC is even lying
publicly saying it has ended (see
CDCR Star) via Terry
Thornton, a mouthpiece propagating on behalf of the state.
I’ve been told if I relent and eat I can go to the block with the
others, but so far I’ve been lied to at every potential turn of events.
[State employees have lied to prisoners throughout the hunger strikes in
an attempt to undermine their unity. -editor]
One of the prevailing misconceptions is that this is primarily a legal
issue, and there’s a metaphysical conception of this too, in that
“legality” is viewed in isolation without grasping its interconnections
with all that is around it, ie. politics, economics, etc.
This lack of political consciousness is reflected in our goal. If there
had been a more elevated ideological grasp on circumstances, even
rudimentary comprehension of dialectics - scientific materialism, the
distinction between “form” and “essence” would likely have been made
once analyzing our strategy, before agreeing on it and pursuing it. You
see, we must alter our
strategic objective. The validation is only one “form,” a vehicle,
amongst a few to permanently isolate one within a sensory deprivation
unit - the “essence” in this dialectical connection.
Had we made this analysis, instead of confronting a peripheral, a formal
manifestation and means to permanently isolate us, we would have gone to
the source of the disease, essentially, the permanent isolation itself.
People are sympathetic to the “dehumanization” that one is subjected to.
One becomes, if enough time passes in such isolation, a social vegetable
incapable of any form of social intercourse. This is caused by the
severe lack of interaction with others, the context necessary for the
personality’s development, which not only identifies us as individuals
distinct from one another, but it is social intercourse that binds us
together as a collective, wholly as a single species.
If we achieve our goal, we’ve struggled only to put a Band-Aid on one of
these sores manifesting from a diseased spot - Solitary Confinement. So
long as it exists, even if we dismantle validation, we’ll still be
subjected to perpetual isolation by different methods, excuses,
justifications, etc.
The push for the right to minimal association with other humyns is a
strategy that has a historical precedent, tried and tested, with more
successful results than not (see the IRA, ETA, RAF, Red Brigades, etc.).
They all gained extraordinary international support within the UN and
from organizations such as Amnesty International, etc. [Amnesty
International released a
statement
of support for the hunger strikers during round 2 of the hunger strike.
They condemned the use of political repression by the state against
those who participated.]