Under Lock & Key

I have been a member of USW since 2017. Since then I have contributed zealously, especially the move away from publishing the revisionist ideal of prisoners complaining about prison conditions and their grievances, which served no purpose to the movement other than to teach comrades revisionist methods of resolution to make prisons ideally more comfortable and less punitive.

As I attempt a corrective analysis, I ask is writing grievances and filing lawsuits against prison adminsistrators a revisionist ideal or revolutionary? and if it is revolutionary, how?

I know no revolution that was won through writing grievances or use of the courts! Read Dr. Burton’s book Tip of the Spear and see how that ideal worked for the comrades in the Attica Liberation Faction (ie. BPP, BLA, W.U. and all). It gets minimum results that require the exhaustion of much energy, study of law and money. Tip of the Spear calls for deep analysis of revolution and how it looks when applied in multiple states and facilities.

I am so disappointed I never received ULK 83 so I can analyze comrades’ analysis of Dr. Burton’s book.

Wiawimawo of MIM(Prisons) responds: I don’t know of any USW leaders that don’t write grievances or file lawsuits. Grievances are tactics. So we agree that no revolution has been won by grievances, just as none is won by maintaining a website. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do these things.

To further answer your question i’d point you to Jailhouse Lawyers: Prisoners Defending Prisoners v. the U.S.A. by Mumia Abu-Jamal, or my review of it. In that book Delbert Africa is quoted explaining what happens to people who go deep into fighting their case in the courts:

“They go crazy becuz, Mu, they really believe in the System, and this System always betray those that believe in it! That’s what drive them out they minds, they cain’t handle that.”

As i said, we look at these things as tactics, as opposed to strategy. Though strategically we do believe we are in a stage of legal struggle in this country, we mean that in the broad sense. Legal struggle in the courts is just one form of legal struggle, and not one that we focus on.

So why engage in grievance battles and the grievance campaigns USW has going in various states?

1. To win battles that are more strategic, especially around First Amendment rights to communicate, affiliate and just read. Fighting censorship has always been a struggle we have put effort into because it is a direct threat to our organizing efforts. It’s not just about making conditions more comfortable. The most recently added grievance petition was in Indiana, where it has already been used to help get 6-month-old mail delivered. When we distribute the petitions to prisoners we include a cover letter where we state:

“MIM(Prisons) sees these petitions as a good use of our resources because our ability to fairly have our grievances handled is directly related to preventing arbitrary repression for people who stand up for their rights or attempt to do something positive. We support this petition in light of our anti-censorship work and anti-repression work in general.”

An outside supporter recently expressed concerns echoing Orko’s:

“but if what it ends up being is just MIM(Prisons) helping prisoners get their immediate personal grievances addressed, i don’t see how that differs from the work being done by hundreds of other reformist/bourgeois prison advocacy groups, other than that you also offer them Maoist resources”

It is true that people use the grievance petitions for various issues. And an individual using the petition to get some persynal issue addressed is not contributing to the prison struggle, nor to the anti-imperialist struggle. It is up to the comrades on the ground to use the petitions to build an organizing base. In either case, it is a tiny amount of time and resources that we are putting into getting petitions into peoples’ hands. When we put in the effort to assemble articles and conduct support campaigns, it will be around issues like censorship, solitary confinement and political repression.

2. To mobilize the masses of prisoners. The grievance campaigns have been utilized by many to mobilize those around them for a common cause. Mobilizing the masses to organize against state oppression is a central task to any revolutionary movement. However, both of the critics above pointed out that just filing grievances and petitions is only teaching people to beg the oppressor for resolutions. It is up to USW organizers to ensure that multiple tactics are employed in any campaign, including tactics that contribute to building independent struggle. As we always say, there are no rights only power struggles.

A longer debate between USW leaders over how to do this has already appeared in a series of articles in ULK.(1) As the comrade concluded in that first article, when the masses see the smallest victory as a miracle and are easily pacified by it, leaders are easily isolated by the state, so security precautions are of utmost importance for any sustained effort. The other USW leader in that article argues that without a strong cadre organization to frame such struggles, they will only set the revolutionary struggle back.

There have been many cases where USW comrades report that with a lot of struggle they barely get people to sign a petition or grievance if the leader does all the work to write them up and make copies. In such cases, where the masses must have their hands held to express the slightest bit of discontent, we must conclude that we are not succeeding in mobilizing the masses to take their destinies in their own hands.

3. To appeal to the masses where they are at. In 2022, our Texas campaign pack was one of the top referrals for new subscribers after word of mouth and ULK. The grievance petitions are also a tool for recruiting new comrades from the masses. Some will never be interested in anything beyond getting their local grievances heard, others will see the futility in relying on the system and join USW.

[We are currently out of copies of Jailhouse Lawyers by Mumia but would happily distribute more to prisoners across the country if anyone wants do donate copies to our Free Political Books to Prisoners Program.]

^{Notes: 1. see Orientating USW Organizing Strategy in Light of Texas Victory in ULK 72, and the 4 articles titled An Ongoing Discussion on Organizing Strategy found in ULKs 73, 74, 76 and 77.}

This year has been filled with misinformation, in the media that has been strategically broadcasted to mislead, antagonize and keep people divided. It is beyond my comprehension to understand how people reason with themselves to vote for people to office as their representatives without analysis of what is really going on. All year long the media broadcasts visible contradictions in everything these representatives say and do, yet no one questions or holds these representatives accountable for their actions and inactions.

Movement after movement has arose in opposition to inactions or actions of government officials, but to what end? or means? These movements proclaim this and that end or means but without any analysis of what is really taking place. I see no method for resolving these contradictions to any prosperous end through any known movement. Our movement (MIM(Prisons) and associates) are included in my analysis because of recent dissonance. The Spring 2020 ULK No. 70 publication attempts to demystify MIM’s failures, but has either forgotten or not published Mao Zedong’s cataloged weaknesses exhibited by themselves or the lumpen-proletarians as revolutionary soldiers. The following should be published as strong talking points for future issues:

1. The military viewpoint – A tendency to regard fighting as the only task of the army, avoidance of such political tasks as educating and organizing the mass of the people, arming ’em and helping ’em to establish their own political power. Without this fight/politikal work the whole fight is lost and its meaning and the revolutionary a reason for existence.

2. Extreme democracy – Aversion to discipline, each commander and soldier going their own way in a carefree manner.

3. Absolute equalitarianism – A demand that everyone be treated alike regardless of circumstances; meanwhile no one is created equal.

4. Subjectivism – Holding opinions and criticisms without a realistic examination of the facts and without regard for politikal principle, basing opinions on random talk and wishful thinking; focusing criticism on minor issues, petty defects and personal quirks. All of these only lead to mutual suspicion and unprincipled quarreling between people.

5. Individualism – Vindictiveness, cliquism, the mercenary viewpoint; holding oneself responsible to individual leaders rather than to the revolution as a whole; Hedonism – an urgent desire for personal comfort and pleasure, longing to leave the hard life of struggle and find some softer spot.

6. The idea of roving insurgents

7. Adventurism – Acting blindly regardless of conditions and the state of mind of one’s forces; Slack discipline on the one hand but corporal punishment and the execution of deserters on the other, attempting to enforce rather than to inspire loyalty to cause.

These are the tenents we need to analyze and play on to prevent any challenges to our rule before the revolution begins and count on ’em to disrupt the revolution once it begins!

In Struggle.