Under Lock & Key

The deeply appreciated efforts of MIM inspire me to see with a different view the same circumstances. Let’s look at the current election:

Both candidates have an utterly failed platform. The Amerikkkan elections are about Amerikkkan hegemony; keeping Amerikkka the richest and most militant/violent nation on earth.

There is no revolutionary voice or worthy candidate. Have we heard anyone say “All the wealth of the world belongs to all the people of the world?” That’s the revolutionary voice.

Have we heard any candidate say “The goal of humynity, including politics, is to solve the problems of hunger, lack of shelter, cure diseases and end oppression across the globe. Politics is NOT meant to exploit people beyond national borders or to see that we have ‘more and better.’” If you heard such a speech you heard a revolutionary voice.

Have you heard a candidate say “This is my plan to assist other nations to work in harmony with us to end world hunger, child mortality, lack of medicine and education, and dire poverty. Some candidates speak of the upper 1%, but I’m here to tell you that if you live in the United $tates you are the upper 13%. It’s past time for us to see all people as our family. The Haitian in the slum is your sister, my sister. The Nepalese man living in the street is our father. The infant who died in Bangladesh from a treatable fever is our daughter, yes, one of us humyns.”

When you hear that voice, then vote. Until then, ignore the candidates and work together for the day when your political power comes from the barrel of a gun.

MIM(Prisons) responds: This comrade nicely summarizes where our priorities should be as world citizens: focused on ending oppression for people suffering under imperialism around the world. We know that the capitalists will not peacefully give up the power they use to generate great wealth from the majority of the world’s people. In fact, even after a communist revolution that seizes the government for the interests of the world’s oppressed, we can expect that the former bourgeoisie, and even some new bourgeois recruits, will attempt to take back their wealth and power and they will need to be kept down with force until they can be re-integrated as productive members of society.

We call this phase of the revolution the Dictatorship of the Proletariat because it still involves a government with power over people, but that government is acting in the interests of the proletariat, unlike our current government which is really a Dictatorship of the Bourgeoisie. There will be a long period of socialism while we remould society and our culture to educate people in treating others humanely and working for the greater good rather than for individual gain at the expense of others. During this process we can expect to see a new bourgeoisie attempt to take power from the proletariat, as their goal and culture will not disappear overnight.

We learn much from looking at the histories of the Soviet Union and China under socialism, both about this bourgeois counterrevolution and the cultural revolutions necessary to build towards communism. In imperialist elections we recognize that changing the face of the government doesn’t change the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, and we stay focused insist on overthrowing this dictatorship rather than adjusting the makeup hiding its evil face.

As each holiday season reminds us, there are certain tunes sung again and gain for generations. Perhaps a word or two is altered as language changes, but the message is the same.

A man named Carolus Linneaus is honored by most amerikkkans as “one of the greatest scientists of the Western world” for his message back in 1738.(1) While the terms aren’t in use in today’s language, let’s see if we recognize the time.

Modern imperialism was in its nascent stage back then. Powerful and power hungry Europeans were attempting to find a reasoned justification for dominating and destroying other people in order to take their resources. Good ol’ Carolus Linneaus - brilliant scientist - had already classified the world into the various families, genus, types, etc. that we learn in biology. But most hystory books don’t tell us he also made four classes of humyns:

Homo Europeans: people who are light, lively, inventive, ruled by rites

Homo Americanus: people who are tenacious, contented, free, ruled by custom

Homo Asiaticus: people who are stern, haughty, stingy, ruled by opinion

Homo Africanus: cunning, slow, ruled by caprice

This is a timeless tune, isn’t it? I suppose we could add to this “Carolus” the jingle of Donald Kunt, er Trump kkklassifying Latinos as murderers, rapists, and criminals. I mean, if i classify you as not quite humyn then I can freely treat you as other than me. Like it’s okay to steal a duck’s eggs ’cause ducks don’t have rights.

The modern white imperialists say they fought wars to correct their past stench. These pukes say slavery is a thing of the past; that slavery is abolished, and we should “forget it and move forward.”

But after the so-called civil war that allegedly abolished slavery, we find the 13th Amendment to the Constitution was passed. This amendment reads, in pertinent part: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist in the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” Are we perceiving a pattern? “All men are created equal” except. “Slavery is abolished except…”

In the nineteenth century cities were burned, courthouses bombed, and Presidents assassinated to bring about an end to most slavery in the united snakes. Is that what it will take to get it through the thick skulls of the modern imperialists that slavery is repugnant under any circumstances: no exceptions!

While this article is not broad enough in scope to compare modern penological practice with nineteenth century slavery, let us note that today’s prisoners and former slaves:

1. Are disenfranchised, forbidden to vote in both federal and state elections.(2)

2. Are not considered persons nor employees, and may be forced to labor without compensation.(3)

3. Do not have any right to wages, nor granted any humane civil protections under the Fair Labor Standards Act or the Federal Minimum Wage Law.(4)

4. Do not have any rights to property in most instances, we are property.(5)

While Amerikkkan slavery was more severe than incarceration in Amerikkka’s gulag today, the overwhelming thrust behind both institutions is a disgusting conviction that one group of humans is somehow superior and has the right to degrade and deprive the other group.

No one would seriously argue that the majority of slaves in kkkolonial Amerikkka was any race other than Afrikan. But what about the prisoners in Amerikkka’s gulag?

It is widely known that the united snakes imprisons more people than any other nation per capita. It is said the United $tates has just 4.4% of the world’s population yet locks about 25% of all the world’s prisoners in its gulags.

As of 31 December 2012, there were 1,570,397 people in bondage in federal and state correctional facilities in the United $tates (not including jails). That year Black males were incarcerated at a rate 610% higher than white males (Blacks 2,841 per 100,000 U.$. residents vs whites 463 per 100,000).(6)

In state facilities at the end of 2011 there were 509,677 Black men and women prisoners which is 38% of the total prisoner population of 1,341,804. By contrast white men and women accounted for only 34.7%. And yet Blacks comprise just 13% of the entire U.$. population whereas whites are 80%.(7) Said another way, of the 41,455,973 Blacks in the united snakes, 509,677 are in a state correctional facility (approximately 1%) serving a prison sentence, but merely 465,180 of the 255,113,682 whites (1/5 of 1%) are in prison. Mathematically five times as much of the Black population is in prison compared to white population.

Does this mean Blacks are more “criminally active” than whites? Let the documents speak. Of the 9,390,473 arrests in 2012, 6,502,919 or 69.3% of the arrestees were white. There were only 2,640,067 Blacks arrested, or 28.1% of all arrestees were Black. So how is it the majority of the prisoners are Black? Because the white imperialist injustice system prosecutes Blacks and crushes them with lengthy prison sentences while the majority of whites have charges dropped, or lowered to lesser offenses, or get probation/pretrial diversion, or have expensive attorneys for trial, etc.

While imperialists do not profit from the labor of prisoners as their forefathers did from slaves, imprisonment keeps Blacks from competing against upper class whites in the job market. The labor aristocracy maintains its white hegemony. Be sure not all white imperialists are Caucasian. Ask President Obama, Oprah Winfrey, and Marco Rubio what they think of the 13th Amendment and the deprivation of basic rights to prisoners economically. The next time an imperialist Amerikkkan sings jingoism about the United $tates correcting its addiction to slavery and exploitation, simply say “bullshit.” But soon the people will crush it. Til then let us educate with plans to eradicate.

MIM(Prisons) responds: This comrade makes a solid case for the existence of national oppression within the United $tates today, as evidenced by the disproportionate treatment of New Afrikans compared to whites in the criminial injustice system. And by correctly noting that the imperialists do not profit from the labor of prisoners, this writer also provides the reason why we do not call prisoners, even those forced to work for no wages, slaves. (See ULK 8 for more on the U.$. prison economy). Further, unlike slaves, prisoners can not be bought and sold like property. And so on this point we disagree with the author: we do not call prisoners “property” just like we don’t consider prisoners to be “slaves.”

Every article in ULK 44 is on point! “Baltimore: Contradictions Heightening” leaves me hoping there are boots on the ground to guide the demonstrators into an organized resistance. It seems from historical examples that destruction of property and forcible removal of merchandise gets results, e.g. Rodney King, whereas candles and prayer obtain imperialistic praise, e.g. Trayvon Martin in Florida. When a kkkapitalist suffers economic harm, imperialist forces will crush a few of their own thug enforcers to restore the facade of calm. Destroy the property of the bourgeoisie and the killers of oppressed citizens get arrested.

Loco1’s article on the sovereign citizen movement does much to dispel myth and urban legend. But often the hope of fallacy is stronger than the cold fist of truth. Recently a rumor has spread that prisoners may file a 42 USC 1983 petition for just $35 if they tell the clerk to “file it in the green file without the protection of admiralty law.” Even though I’ve shown men an order from a magistrate judge, and a letter from the court clerk, both stating $400 is the filing fee ($350 if in forma pauperis is granted), prisoners still insist they only have to pay $35. I even showed them an order denying a prisoner’s request to “file his petition for $35.”

As for the sovereign citizen rubbish, it is historical fact that even when a legal remedy does provide liberation, the supreme court of the united snakes devises methods to make it inapplicable to the oppressed. Look up Dred Scott. Consider that “a prison inmate … is not an employee within the meaning of the [Federal Labor Standards Act].”(1) Does anyone honestly believe that an imperialist court of pig justices would uphold the sovereign citizen argument? Even if the argument was rooted in sound legal principles (and your articles shows it is not), the imperialist powers in the court are not going to say the government that empowered them is a fraud and void.

And Rashid is incorrect, especially on the subject of the labor aristocracy. First, MIM’s definition can be validated by simply engaging in discussion with prison staff, including teachers. Those people do not identify with the workers in other nations. Recently a teacher told me that his gas prices should be lower because “Iraq owes us their oil in exchange for our blood in liberating them.” When I replied that I don’t recall any Iraqis ever asking us to invade their country and plunge it into civil war, he said, “You only hear what you want to hear.” I was also informed it is fair for a factory worker in India to earn 46 cents an hour because “Amerikkka and England built that country for them.” Really? And second, just because members of revolutionary groups are possibly from bourgeois or aristocratic backgrounds, it does NOT mean those groups as a whole will support revolution. But neither does it automatically exclude one from the fight. There were Germans who fought against the nazis. And Americans who fought for the bastards.