RAIL NOTES
A CONTINENTAL PUBLICATION OF THE REVOLUTIONARY ANTI-IMPERIALIST LEAGUE
FEBRUARY - APRIL 1999
1. OPPOSE GENOCIDE!
2. WHAT IS RAIL?
3. WHAT IS MIM?
4. OPPOSE THE INJUSTICE SYSTEM!
SUPPORT UNITED STRUGGLE FROM WITHIN!
5. RAIL STATEMENT ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE SECOND MENDIOLA MASSARCE
6. DROP SANCTIONS, NOT BOMBS
AMERIKA LAUNCHES AIR STRIKES AGAINST IRAQ; ORGANIZE FOR ANTI-IMPERIALIST REVOLUTION
7. WHAT IS IMPERIALISM?
8. REVOLUTIONARY HISTORY: The Attica Prison Rebellion
9. IRAQ IS A CHILDREN'S HELL
10. HIV+ PRISONER COMMITS SUICIDE
11. SEXUAL ABUSE OF WIMMIN PRISONERS
12. DESPITE BOURGEOIS REFORM ATTEMPTS, BRUTALITY CONTINUES IN KALIFORNIAN PRISONS
13. CALRAIL EXPOSES BLACK REVOLUTIONARY HISTORY
14. OPPOSE SLAVERY IN PRISONS
15. PHONE COMPANY INCREASES THEFT FROM PRISONERS' FAMILIES.
16. U$/EUROPEAN IMPERIALISM SPONSORS NIGERIAN MURDERS
17. MORAIL RALLIES AGAINST BRUTALITY
18. HEALTH CARE IN AMERIKA'S PRISONS: BRUTALITY IN A WHITE COAT
19. DRUGS, GENOCIDE AND SELF-INTEREST
20. MASSES PROTEST U.$. SPOSORED TERROR
21. PIG KILLS PAROLE
22. POPULATION CONTROL GENOCIDE
23. AGAINST THE WALL
24. IS THE WAR ON DRUGS A WAR AGAINST THE OPPRESSED?
25. WRITE FOR RAIL NOTES!
OPPOSE GENOCIDE!
This Issue of RAIL Notes in dedicated in part to exposing the gross
genocidal practices by the U$ government in its quest to rule and
control the world. Many liberals will say that the U$ is wrong in much
of what it does, but will refuse to call the murder, starvation,
continuous poverty, militarization and other U$ imperialist practices,
genocidal. There is also much talk about upholding Universal Human
Rights and looking to the UN for action. Here is what the UN has to say
about genocide:
"... genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to
destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious
group, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated
to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group." (1)
The UN agrees that a nation or government commiting such acts is
committing crimes against humanity and must be punished. with by
international law.
The following pages of RAIL Notes expose just how the everyday U$
efforts to ensure "Amerikan interest" amount to the above definition and
more. The U$ is a genocidal weapon and every level of U$ intervention
must be opposed. The answer is not to call upon the UN because U$
genocide has existed for hundreds of years and little to no action has
ever been taken by the UN to stop it. The actions in Iraq today and
within U$ prisons prove that the UN is serving U$ interests and applies
the crime of genocide only to those nations who don't willingly submit
to U$ and imperialist demands. Oppose genocide! Fight U$ imperialism!!
(1)
http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/p_genoci.htm
* * *
_
WHAT IS RAIL?
The Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League (RAIL) is a mass organization
led by the Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM). RAIL supports self-
determination for all peoples, including the necessity of armed struggle
against imperialism. RAIL is against the proliferation of prisons
warehousing the oppressed, imperialist militarism, imperialist economic
domination of the worlds majority, and white settler chauvinism against
Amerika's internal colonies the Black nation and the many Indigenous
and Latino nations.
RAIL welcomes participation from individuals seeking to further expose
the atrocities of imperialism and build opposition to the current system
of injustice. RAIL works in the United Front led by MIM to build
independent institutions of the oppressed and Serve the People Programs.
Following in the footsteps of the Black Panther Party, MIM and these
institutions simultaneously meet the Peoples needs while organizing
against imperialism.
RAIL members should not conceal RAIL's relationship with MIM when
working amongst the masses. RAIL will not accept the leadership of
revisionist organizations within RAIL or for campaigns or events which
RAIL organizes. RAIL members can be members of other mass organizations.
Voting members of RAIL must be anti-imperialist and agree with the
necessity of armed struggle. People who disagree with these points are
welcome to work with us on common goals. RAIL accepts responsibility for
all articles printed and will respond to any criticism.
RAIL,
P.O. 3576
Ann Arbor MI
48106-3576
[email protected]
* * *
_
WHAT IS MIM?
The Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM) is a revolutionary communist
party that upholds Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, comprising the collection of
existing or emerging Maoist internationalist parties it the English-
speaking imperialist countries and their English-speaking internal semi-
colonies, as well as the existing or emerging Spanish-speaking Maoist
internationalist parties of Aztlan, Puerto Rico and other territories or
the U.S. Empire. MIM Notes is the newspaper of MIM. Notas Rojas is the
newspaper of the Spanish-speaking parties or emerging parties of MIM.
MIM is an internationalist organization that works from the vantage
point of the Third World proletariat; thus, it members are not
Amerikans, but world citizens.
MIM struggles to end the oppression of all groups over other groups:
classes, genders and nations. MIM knows this is only possible by
building public opinion to seize power through armed struggle.
Revolution is a reality for North America as the military become over-
extended in the government's attempts to maintain world hegemony.
MIM differs from other communist parties on three main questions: (1)
MIM holds that after the proletariat seizes power in socialist
revolution, the potential exists for capitalist restoration under the
leadership of a new bourgeoisie within the communist party itself. In
the case of the USSR, the bourgeoisie seized power after the death of
Stalin in 1953; in China, it was after Mao's death and the overthrow of
the "Gang of Four" in 1976. (2) MIM upholds the Chinese Cultural
Revolution as the farthest advance of communism in human history. (3)
MIM believes the North American white-working-class is primarily a non-
revolutionary worker-elite at this time; thus, it is not the principal
vehicle to advance Maoism in this country.
MIM accepts people as members who agree on these basis principles and
accept democratic centralism, the system of majority rule, on other
question of party line.
* * *
OPPOSE THE INJUSTICE SYSTEM!
SUPPORT UNITED STRUGGLE FROM WITHIN!
RAIL works in cooperation with prisoners and in opposition to prisons as
a central part of our organizing against imperialism. Because Amerika
imprisons more people per capita than any other country on the planet,
activists in this country bear a tremendous responsibility for exposing
the excesses and the brutality of prisons here.
The prisons in this country lock up grossly disproportionate numbers of
Blacks, Latinos and First Nations. The Black Panther Party pointed out
that just as the U.$. military occupies large sections of the
Philippines, police within U.$. borders occupy the internal colonies.
The prisons are an extension of this occupation - where Blacks make up
about 60% of the Michigan prisoner population, but only 14% of the
state. Because the prisons are central to imperialism within U.$.
borders, opposition to prisons and solidarity with prisoners is central
to anti-imperialism.
Prisoners have called upon students to intensify opposition to prisons.
In Michigan, the total prison budget is close to $1.5 billion. In 1998,
the increase for the prison budget rose by $186 million, while the
increase for universities increased only $27.3 million. Amerika is
funneling more and more funds into prisons at the expense of education
and programs which improve society.
Resulting from MIM and RAIL's direct mass work with prisoners, a new
anti-imperialist prisoner mass organization has formed - called United
Struggle from Within (USW). USW exposes the injustices of the prison
system, educates and organizes those under lock and key and on the
outside and wages winnable legal battles to improve prison conditions.
USW works on these goals as it builds support for anti-imperialist
revolution. There are several ways to support USW.
RAIL and USW need help to expand the Serve the People Prisoners' Legal
Clinic, fight increasing prison censorship, and organize opposition to
prison brutality. RAIL and USW also seek support for the Serve the
People Free Books for Prisoners Program. USW holds political education
classes in prison and also uses the books to generally advance the level
of prisoners' education.
While many state prisons systems have the words "correction" or
"rehabilitation" in their names, they purport to achieve these goals by
locking prisoners in cages and starving them of intellectual
stimulation. Just as education is vital to people on the outside, it is
elemental for people under lock and key. Educational resources for
prisoners are quite limited. The U.$. Federal Government ended the
extension of Pell Grants to prisoners in 1994, cutting an important
source of funding for prisoners' higher education. Since then, many
state governments have withdrawn or reduced educational programs.
Prisoners in Michigan report that it is difficult to get into GED
classes, and that a prisoner who has a GED or high school diploma is
given lower priority for library access than others.
Support our brothers and sisters under lock and key - Support United
Struggle from Within!
* * *
_
_ RAIL STATEMENT ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE SECOND MENDIOLA MASSARCE
On January 22, 1987 troops loyal to newly installed "democratic"
president Corey Aquino opened fire on peasants demanding that Aquino
honor her promise to undertake genuine agrarian reform. The troopers
killed 13 demonstrators and wounded 63 more. RAIL delivered the
following statement at a commemoration organized by BAYAN-International
US and PESANTE-USA.
The Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League commemorates and salutes the
struggle of the Filipino masses against the three mountains which
oppress them: Feudalism, bureaucrat capitalism, and imperialism. We take
their willingness to make tremendous sacrifices in the struggle for true
self determination - even to the point of shedding their own blood - as
an inspiration and example. We recognize that they - and all other
people in the colonies and neocolonies struggling against imperialism -
are in the forefront of the anti-imperialist struggle. They bear the
heaviest load. In turn, we offer them our support, both directly, by
publicizing their struggles to the peoples of North America and helping
out where we can, and indirectly, by struggling against u.$. imperialism
from within Amerika's borders.
The Mendiola Massacre is an example of the evil nature of u.$.
imperialism and the local reactionaries in the Philippines. It clearly
exposed the puppet nature of the u.$.-Aquino regime. Although the u.$.
imperialists tried to sell Corey Aquino as a promoter of democracy, her
regime actually surpassed the Marcos regime in human rights abuses.
But we and the struggling masses of the world are not scared by the
brutality of u.$. imperialism, either abroad, or here within u.$.
borders, where the u.$. imperialists are threatening to assassinate
Mumia Abu Jamal, and where the u.$. imperialists lock up more and more
of the masses for petty "crimes" simply to keep a lid on the masses'
discontent. We are not afraid of their reactionary violence, because we
know that it springs from their ultimate weakness and their fear of the
oppressed masses. The vast majority of the world's people in the
colonies and neocolonies are oppressed by u.$. imperialism. Repression
and oppression breed resistance. It follows that u.$. imperialism's days
are numbered.
Down with imperialism! Long live international solidarity!
* * *
DROP SANCTIONS, NOT BOMBS
AMERIKA LAUNCHES AIR STRIKES AGAINST IRAQ; ORGANIZE FOR ANTI-IMPERIALIST REVOLUTION
The governments of Amerika and England launched four nights of air
strikes against the Iraqi people starting December 16. The recent air
strikes continue the decade long war against the Iraqi people. The
bombings will bring about increased death and destruction in the name of
expanding U.$. imperialist power.
In order to defend the continued genocide and recent military campaign,
the imperialists pointed to the UN weapons inspector's report on the
status of UNSCOM's (United Nations Special Commission) operations. The
imperialist report - written with the advice of the $tate Department
-stated that Iraq did not cooperate with Amerika and that Iraq
"compromised" UN inspections of alleged weapons of mass destruction. In
fact, the U.$. decided to bomb Iraq before the report was even handed in
to the United Nations.
The inspection process and its underlying premise of Amerikan authority
are bogus. The deployment of weapons of mass destruction has
overwhelmingly been at the hands of Amerikan imperialism. The
imperialists attacked civilians under the guise of destroying Iraq's
hypothetical future use of weapons of mass destruction.
Because Amerikan imperialism relies on being the most powerful economic
and military force in the world, the u.$. is willing to use its weapons
of mass destruction any time a country does not bow to its will. And in
this case as others, the imperialists create a show to justify genocidal
military attacks. Beyond the number of direct deaths (estimated at 75
civilian in Baghdad alone), the bombings increase the thousands of
deaths caused from preventable health problems.
World War III continues
Imperialist military strikes are only the shooting aspect of World War
III waged against the Third World. Since 1990, the U.$., with the
blessing of its puppet U.N., has enforced an economic blockade against
Iraq. RAIL recognizes these economic sanctions as an act of war.
It is no surprise that the Iraqi people oppose the U$. So far more than
1 million civilian Iraqi people have died from starvation and lack of
medicine and adequate water treatment facilities. (This total is in
addition to the number of civilians killed during the Gulf War
bombings). Every ten minutes an Iraqi child dies from malnutrition,
preventable disease or other effects of the sanctions. When sanctions
result in massive deaths and destruction, it is impossible to rationally
reject the analysis that this is genocide. U.$. imperialism benefits
from continued economic sanctions. The sanctions keep Iraq from
upsetting investments in other parts of the region and keep Iraq's
commerce out of commission, and fully controlled by the imperialists.
With the current low oil sales due to the economic crisis in Asia, more
Iraqi oil on the market would be unwelcome competition for Amerikan
companies and client states.
The military attacks strengthen the imperialist hand against Iraq. The
ruse surrounding weapons inspections helps to ensure prolonged
implementation of the sanctions. The military campaign and economic
sanctions as well as the tripling of imperialist ground troops in the
region aid the long term imperialist goal of installing a puppet
dictator that will kowtow to Amerikan demands. Until a U.$.-puppet is
installed, the U.$. will continue its attempts to control Iraqi
participation in the oil market through its current methods.
Lewinsky & impeachment aren't the reason for attacks.
Many "left" groups and pundits claim that the attacks are Clinton's
attempts to distract attention from his impeachment by the House of
Representatives. This argument does the people of the world a grave
disservice, by implying that the war against Iraq is not a bipartisan
war.
While the timing of the attack may have been influenced by the
impeachment, the United States-led UNSCOM was hurtling towards bombing
already. Clinton would have bombed Iraq anyway, as he has already done
previously.
This is not a "Wag the Dog" scenario, where the president starts a war
to distract the Amerikan public from his sex scandal. Rather, the sex
scandal is a distraction from World War III now being carried out on the
majority of the world's people.
Amerikan hypocrisy & hegemony
Because Iraq has given up Kuwait, the blockade is illegal by UN
resolutions. (Not that blockades were ever legal.) Now, the United
Snakes of Imperialism uses Resolution 687 to justify the bombings and
continued sanctions. U.N. Resolution 687 calls for Iraq to destroy its
alleged weapons of mass destruction and to commit to inspections.
Even taking for granted the U.$. claim that it was right to bomb Iraq if
it violated the inspections, it is instructive to look at the Butler
report. UNSCOM chief Richard Butler complains that Iraqi compliance with
resolution 687 is "unacceptable". Since November 17, 1998, there have
been 427 inspections of Iraqi sites. According to Butler's report, there
have been only 5 "disruptions.":
1) a 45 minute delay, 2) an Iraqi rebuff to UNSCOM attempts to interview
undergraduate science students in Baghdad, 3) restricting access to the
small office of a Ba'ath party leader, 4&5) delays in getting access to
buildings on the Muslim sabbath.
By many accounts, Iraq has destroyed its weapons of mass destruction. It
is not in the interests of U.$. imperialism to admit that Iraq has met
the terms of Resolution 687. To do so would mean that the u.$. would
have to lift economic sanctions against the Iraqi people, stop its
strategy of genocide and lose the prospects of controlling Iraq to
protect U.$. imperialism.
Whether or not the accounts are accurate, RAIL opposes the bombing of
Iraq or other forms of coercion to control its military capacity. RAIL
opposes imperialism in its entirety, including the imperialist power to
act as world kop.
Just as white pigs occupy the territory of oppressed nations within the
u.$., the imperialists act as world pigs. In both cases, the pigs
implement rules which benefit the economic, military and political
interests of imperialist Amerika. RAIL opposes the imperialist power to
dictate the political, economic and military systems of other nations.
We support genuine self-determination of oppressed nations and see this
is the only way oppressed nations can negotiate with others on more
equal terms and internally develop the best means to meet the needs of
the people.
The United Snakes would never allow another country, especially an
enemy, to inspect its weapons systems. The Senate Foreign Relations
Committee attached provisions to the implementation of the Chemical
Weapons Convention that are like Saddam Hussein's protests to UNSCOM
inspections. One provision says: "The President may deny a request to
inspect any facility in the United States in cases where the President
[of the U$] determines that the inspection may pose a threat to national
security interests." It further states that "any objection by the
President to any individual serving as an inspector shall not be
reviewable in any court."(11)
Amerikan citizens are even denied the right to document illegal Amerikan
weapons. Six members of the Citizens Inspection Team, a pacifist group,
were arrested for trespassing during attempts to inspect Davis Monthan
Air Force Base for the presence of depleted uranium ammunition. This
armor piercing ammunition is dangerous because of its radioactivity.
Since its effects last for a long time and can cause high rates of
death, it is illegal under international law.(8) These are simply a few
examples that the United Snakes of Imperialism expects and enforces
maximum protection of its military activities while simultaneously
invading (what are supposed to be) sovereign nations to inspect and
destroy weapons and to murder civilians.
Who uses biological, chemical and nuclear weapons?
When Iraq used poison gas against the Kurds and Iran in the 1980s, it
was defended by the United States and UN. Gassing the Kurds in their
fight for independence wasn't original to Iraq, it was first done by
Great Britain in the 1920s.(4)
The United Snakes is the only country to have actually used nuclear
weapons, and did so against civilians. Additionally, the key ingredient
in pepper spray - used daily by police and prison guards - is banned by
the United Nations Biological Weapons Convention in 1972.(4)
Current warnings of the threat of biological weapons from Iraq continue
to tell only the imperialist side of the story. In the Persian Gulf War,
Amerika used such weapons as napalm and fuel-air explosives against both
military and civilian targets, in violation of the Geneva Convention.
A fuel-air explosive releases a "shockwave" whose "concussive force
would surely rupture internal organs or eardrums of Iraqi soldiers
pinned down in their bunkers. This is not even to mention incineration
and asphyxiation, as the fire storm of the bomb sucks all of the oxygen
out of the area."(5)
According to the CIA, Iraq did not use or deploy chemical and biological
weapons in Kuwait.(7)
Even after the war was over, Amerikan armed forces used both biological
and chemical weapons on the "Highway of Death," a road from Kuwait to
Iraq along which retreating Iraqi troops and Palestinian, Jordanian, and
other war refugees traveled at the end of the 1991 war.(6) Again, these
are only a sampling of imperialism's attacks against the masses of the
world. This is why RAIL organizes against U.$. bombings and sanctions
within the context of building revolution against imperialist control
entirely.
Masses protest bombings
The bombing may have stopped after four nights, but evidence points to a
renewed military campaign. One key factor is that Amerika has been
increasingly quicker to jump into military enforcement of imperialism in
the past year. Amerika uses military force at times during the current
World War III to try and scare the masses back into obedience. But from
the long-term perspective, it has the opposite effect of exposing
Amerika for the genocidal murderer it is. After the bombing began,
demonstrations were immediately organized around the world.
The Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League (RAIL) organized rallies,
video showings and teach-ins.
In the West Bank, thousands of Palestinians demonstrated against the
attack, and one was shot and killed by Israel police.(9) Palestinians
chanted "Death to America" and "Death to Clinton".
Indonesian protesters were photographed with signs such as
"Clinton=Hitler" and "Clinton is mass murderer of the year."
The Iraqi people know that Clinton's claim to oppose not the common
people but only Saddam Hussein to be false. The December attacks merely
teach the new generation why they should oppose imperialism.
One Iraqi told a reporter: "Last night my daughter asked me, 'What is
it?" when the bombs started," ... describing how his three children
cowered in fear and cried next to him in bed as the missiles rained
down.
"I told her it was America. She asked me 'Why does America do this to
us?' And I told her it is because they have hatred for the Iraqi
people.... There is no factory, no presidential palace, no weapons site
here. There are only people. So why do you bomb us?"(10)
Notes:
1. NPR - "All Things Considered" December 16, 1998 2.
http://www.web.net/~gccwat/iraq/ 3. The Independent 14 October 1998.
4. "The pot calling the kettle black: A history of bio-chemical
weapons,"
http://www.Al- Bushra.org/temp/grossman.htm. 5. Ramsey
Clark and others, War Crimes: A Report on United States War Crimes
Against Iraq. Maissoneuve Press (Washington, D.C.: 1992), p. 86. 6.
Ibid, p. 18. 7. CIA report on Intelligence Related to Gulf War
Illnesses. http:///www.gulflink.osd.mil/cia_report/102496_war.html 8.
Iraq Notes, Houston Coalition to End the War Against Iraq, 281-546-
7173 9. Agence France Press Dec 17 10. Boston Globe Dec 18 1998 p.
A19. 11. The Progressive March 1998 p. 8.
2.
* * *
WHAT IS IMPERIALISM?
Imperialism is the global economic system that exists today. Through
imperialist military, economic and political control of Third World
nations and the oppressed Black, Latino and First Nations in the U$, the
worlds majority are exploited and super-exploited. In brief, this means
that the toiling masses of the world do not earn the value of their
labor and are not able to survive without income in addition to primary
jobs. The profits from this exploitation and other stolen resources from
the Third World make it possible for imperialist nations to maintain
wealth and inflated standards of living.
First World corporations have expanded to the point where they must
invest money overseas to continue to grow so they export their capital
to the Third World. These foreign investments in Third World economies,
safeguarded by military force, stifle the national economic growth.
Imperialist investment then ensures its own predominance paying dirt
wages to workers who have no options, while the corporations enjoy the
freedom to escape local taxes and environmental restrictions.
It is a principle of anti-imperialism that every nation has the right to
national self-determination and the right to struggle for liberation.
Nations must be free to choose their own economic and political
destinies and not have these policies dictated by occupying forces.
Where imperialism extends itself into the Third World, it stifles all
indigenous economic and political activity. Anti-imperialists hold that
all nations should be free to choose their own course.
RAIL sees imperialism in the hundred-years of U.$. occupation of Puerto
Rico and the Philippines. We see imperialism in Amerikan state-terrorist
bombings of Arab and African countries that will not happily submit to
u.$. political and economic demands. Imperialist economic domination is
evident in the thousands of people who attempt to cross militarized
borders without legal papers year by year. These undocumented immigrants
and workers know they can find better jobs in the u.$. grown wealthy at
the expense of their own countries than they can at home. And we see
imperialism in the exploding Amerikan prisons, whose construction and
maintenance provide jobs for the white nation while their cells cage
huge segments of the Black and Latino nations. For all these reasons,
RAIL addresses U.$. imperialism as a brutal abuser of the oppressed
nations. In the fight against imperialism, we welcome all people who
want to see these forms of injustice destroyed.
* * *
_
_ REVOLUTIONARY HISTORY
Amerika uses education as much as it uses the gun to subvert and repress
people's movements around the world. Instead of hearing about settler
genocide of First Nation peoples, the U$ celebrates the "greatness" of
Christopher Columbus. When Amerikan's talk about poverty, the excuse is
that people are lazy. And U$ leaders think that apologies will make up
for years of slavery and its continued effects on today's Black Nation.
One of the first steps in any revolutionary movement is breaking down
false ideas of the oppressor and replacing them with ideas that will
serve the millions of oppressed people around the world.
RAIL Notes, as a tool of the masses, is now dedicating space to exposing
the realities of Amerikan history. The first topic is the Attica
rebellion, its justification and positive effects on the prisoner
liberation movement.
If you would like to expose the people's history, do some research,
write and article and send it to the address below.
THE ATTICA PRISON REBELLION
On September 9, 1971, the prisoners in D-Yard at Attica State Prison
rebelled. Four days later, New York State Police opened fire, killing 32
prisoners and ten guard hostages. Hundreds were wounded, and then the
guards beat the prisoners. Incarceration in Amerika has never been the
same.
"The Attica uprising was a spontaneous event. It happened because the
material conditions for resistance were ripe. There had been political
study groups in most of the major wings, and prisoner consciousness had
been developed to a point where the entire population could act as a
single fist." Sam Melville, an Attica prisoner, had been publishing a
little underground paper he wrote by hand, with as many carbon copies as
he could make. It was called the Iced Pig.
"Well-thought-out demands had been drawn up and submitted to the state's
corrections bureaucracy for resolution. When no action was taken by
officials, prisoners backed their demands with a ten-day peaceful work
strike. The strike ended with a shopping cart full of pious promises
that were never honored. Then, on Aug. 21, 1971, when George Jackson was
murdered at San Quentin, Attica cons wore black armbands and boycotted
the mess hall for a day. All of these actions reflected a high degree of
political unity.
"On Sept. 9, 1971, less than a month after the boycott, a fight broke
out in one of the wings. Through an unusual combination of
circumstances, such as prisoners inadvertently gaining access to an
important gate, the fight erupted into a riot and takeover of sections
of the prison, including D-Yard. Even though the rebellion was not
planned, D-Yard prisoners quickly and efficiently organized themselves
into a commune. They had no weapons to speak of and their level of
outside support was negligible"
The prisoners knew of their strategic weaknesses. The prisoners called
for support from other New York prisoners and from progressive outside
activists. Importantly, they made the presence of a prisoner-selected
outside Observer team a precondition for negotiations with the prison
administration. The Observer team included bourgeois media people and
representatives of revolutionary organizations like the Black Panther
and Young Lords Parties.
The Observers were able to tell the world what they saw: Prisoners
living communally in the crowded, open-air conditions of D-yard.
Prisoners, going hungry, and sleeping on the ground while their guard
hostages ate and slept on mattresses. Many mainstream and revolutionary
media interviews were made with prisoners, who were allowed to speak of
their conditions in the prison and of their demands.
The 15 demands of the prisoners:
1. Apply the New York State minimum wage law to all state institutions.
STOP SLAVE LABOR.
2. Allow all New York State prisoners to be politically active, without
intimidation or reprisals.
3. Give us true religious freedom.
4. End all censorship of newspapers, magazines, letters and other
publications coming from the publisher.
5. Allow all inmates, at their own expense, to communicate with anyone
they please.
6. When an inmate reaches conditional release date, give him a full
release without parole.
7. Cease administrative re-sentencing of inmates returned for parole
violations.
8. Institute realistic rehabilitation programs for all inmates according
to their offense and personal needs.
9. Educate all correctional officers to the needs of the inmates, i.e.,
understanding rather than punishment.
10. Give us a healthy diet, stop feeding us so much pork, and give us
some fresh fruit daily.
11. Modernize the inmate educational system.
12. Give us a doctor that will examine and treat all inmates that
request treatment.
13. Have an institutional delegation comprised of one inmate from each
company authorized to speak to the institution administration concerning
grievances (QUARTERLY).
14. Give us less cell time and more recreation with better recreational
equipment and facilities.
15. Remove inside walls, making one open yard, and no more segregation
or punishment.
After the uprising and police massacre, the New York commission wrote:
"That the explosion occurred first at Attica was probably chance. But
the elements for replication are all around us. Attica is every prison;
and every prison is Attica."
Such stirring words were meant to inspire-and did, in fact, inspire-a
wave of reform that would prevent the replication of the Attica
rebellion at other prisons. But the level of violence in the prison
system today reflects the failure of reform efforts. The Commission's
warning still holds true, as does the warning they didn't utter. Just as
the conditions that caused the Attica prisoners to rise up still exist,
so do the conditions that caused the state to shoot them down. And it
happens all the time.
Note: 1. Article by a Washington State Prisoner in MIM Notes 56, August
1991.
* * *
IRAQ IS A CHILDREN'S HELL
Since the U$/UN sanctions were imposed against Iraq immediately after
the 1991 Desert Storm massacres, well over 1 million Iraqis have died
due to a lack of food and medicine. The majority of these victims of
Amerikan genocide have been children born after the 1991 military
slaughter.(1) In a country of about 20 million people, the deaths by
imperialist imposed conditions equal about 5% of the population, or
equivalent to wiping out 1/3 of the Black Nation.
The sanctions imposed on Iraq have effectively cut Iraq off from the
outside world. Prior to Desert Storm, Iraq imported most of its
machinery, water sanitation supplies, medical supplies, irrigation
supplies and other such essentials from Europe and other countries.
Since the sanctions were imposed, none of these supplies that have
become necessary to Iraqi life are allowed into the country. Also,
during Desert Storm, the majority of the infrastructure of Iraq,
including its electric, water treatment and medical facilities were
destroyed. Coupled with the effects of the sanctions, Iraqi people are
now suffering from, and dying of, easily curable diseases
In first world imperialist countries the cure rate for leukemia is
nearly 70%. In Iraq it is essentially 0% with only an occasional lucky
survivor of the disease. One doctor in Iraq has lost nearly all of his
leukemia patients in the five years he has worked at Saddam Central, a
Baghdad pediatric hospital.(2)
Several more patients, especially children, die of chest infections and
gastroenteritis. Many of the diseases are caused from overflowing sewage
caused by the recent bombings, Desert storm and the inability to repair
treatment facilities because of the sanctions. Last April, in one
children's hospital, 75 Iraqi children died from these diseases in just
two weeks. According to one highly experienced pediatrician, every one
of these innocent children could have been saved with antibiotics
commonly available in most countries.(2)
Many Iraqi children are even dying from such curable diseases as
pneumonia. Iraq once led the Arab world in terms of science and
medicine. Now Iraqi doctors can not even read medical journals because
they are covered by the U$/UN embargoes. Doctors are forced to use dirty
syringes on one poor suffering child after another because trading
disposable syringes is against the U$/UN sanctions and the only
disposable syringe factory in Iraq was bombed during Desert Storm.
Doctors are also forced to perform difficult operations using worn
instruments and working in quarters that are not even disinfected. Many
of the children die only from a lack of cheap simple items easily and
readily available in drugstores in most parts of the world.(2)
These facts show that the real weapons of mass death and destruction in
Iraq are the U$/UN imposed sanctions. If a country tries to sell the
much needed goods to Iraq, the U$ acts swiftly to stop any such action.
Many of these much needed pharmaceutical items were on an order soon to
be produced in Khartoum, Sudan who chose to disregard the barbaric U$/UN
sanctions. Tragically, terrorist U$ fighter pilots destroyed this plant.
Now many more Iraqi children will suffer and die slow miserable deaths.
UNSCOM inspectors have turned Iraq upside down and inside out seeking
fictitious weapons of mass destruction. The U$ and the UN are completely
aware of the massive death and devastation their merciless policies are
causing. Therefore it must be clearly understood that these deaths are
being intentionally inflicted upon the Iraqi people by the U$ with UN
approval. These massive deaths must be considered cold-blooded murder,
calculated genocide on a scale comparable to the Nazi perpetrated
holocaust.
RAIL seeks to work with, and calls on, all people who oppose the
genocidal sanctions against Iraq. Contact RAIL now. Iraqis are becoming
an endangered species because of U$/UN induced sanctions. Humanity
should not sit idly as an entire nation of people is being exterminated.
RAIL opposes this genocide. Help us and become a part of the solution.
Notes: 1. MN 178 2. New York Times December 28, 1998
* * *
HIV+ PRISONER COMMITS SUICIDE
California prisoner Michael Van Straaten hanged himself in front of
prison staff to protest the treatment he and other California prisoners
with HIV/AIDS receive. Guards found him hanging in the corner of his
cell and watched him for 18 minutes before they entered to pronounce him
dead. His body was still warm and limber when they cut it down.(1)
Van Straaten, a 32-year old Canadian citizen, was transferred in the
mid-90s to the HIV+ unit at Corcoran State Prison, which holds 230
prisoners. California is one of only three states (the others are
Alabama and Mississippi) that segregate their HIV+ inmates by housing
them in separate units in each prison.(2) Corcoran has become a dumping
ground for HIV+ patients.
Corcoran's HIV+ unit is infamous for its poor health care. Prisoners get
sub-standard treatment and their viral loads are not adequately
monitored. The first AIDS fatality at Corcoran died of an easily
treatable opportunistic infection. One former prisoner wrote, "Even with
signs of the yeast infection in his mouth, his condition went
untreated... He was allowed to remain in his cell for almost three weeks
unattended and unmonitored by the medical staff. His condition rapidly
worsened, he developed pneumonia and his lungs filled. By the time he
was taken to the hospital he had wasted away to near nothing. He lasted
three days in the hospital."(3)
Another prisoner at the unit wrote, "My greatest concern about Corcoran
is that once I got very sick, I would not receive proper care, and I
would die miserably."(2)
Van Straaten stated that his medications for his seizures (he also had
epilepsy) and HIV were delayed and sometimes denied. With the help of
California prisoners' rights activists, friends and family in Canada,
and even the Canadian embassy, Van Straaten was fighting to be
transferred to the medical facility at Vacaville or a prison in Canada.
His requests for transfer were repeatedly denied over the course of
several years.
Just before he committed suicide, Van Straaten was again denied a
transfer and was placed in solitary confinement following an epileptic
seizure.
Fellow prisoners said that the first two guards to arrive at the cell
"actually yelled at him to come down, to stop his suicide." Van Straaten
was pronounced dead 20 minutes later, after guards had taken no action
to aid him.(4)
Van Straaten's frustration, the terrible medical care prisoners with
AIDS receive, and guards callous disregard for Van Straaten's very life
are the results of a system which considers prisoners to be slaves or
bodies to be warehoused or worse. The dramatic four-fold expansion of
the Amerikan prison population has been fueled in large part by harsh
sentences for drug users - a population at high risk for HIV infection.
The result is that many people already given outrageous sentences for
petty, non-violent crimes in effect receive a death sentence, thanks to
the poor care HIV+ prisoners receive.
Adequate heath care is a non-negotiable right. Certainly it is possible
to provide prisoners with adequate HIV/AIDS care (and treatment for
other diseases as well) - but the ideology which considers prisoners
less than humyn and the increasing role that the profit motive plays in
prisons denies them care. Prisoners should receive the same standard of
care that non-prisoners do. Prisoners should also have access to basic
measures which stop the spread of HIV, such as clean needles and
condoms.
Ultimately, the best way to ensure adequate health care for prisoners is
to overturn the systems of oppression which intersect in Amerikan
prisons: National oppression, which denies economic opportunity in
Black, Latino, First Nation and other communities and which locks people
from these nations up at unjust disproportionate rates, and capitalism,
which places profit before humyn needs.
We understand the desperation of prisoners like Van Straaten who see no
alternative to protest the system that is torturing and killing them and
many others, but we value the lives of our fighting comrades and
encourage all who want to protest the injustice system to join with RAIL
for the long fight. Work with us to expose the system and organize
others into the struggle. Send us news and information about what's
going on in your prison, support MIM and circulate MIM Notes to other
prisoners, form study groups and work with us and other prisoners in the
legal fight while we build a revolutionary movement to take down the
injustice system.
Notes: 1. Los Angeles Times, 19 Dec 98. 2. "POZ: Lethal Lottery,"
http://www.thebody.com/poz/survival/11_98/lottery.html. 3. "Conditions
faced by prisoners with HIV/AIDS in California,"
http://www.igc.apc.org/justice/articles/conditions-faced-by-prisoners-
with.html. 4. Los Angeles Times, 24 Dec 98.
Some facts about HIV/AIDS in Amerikan prisons:
*AIDS is the main cause of death in Amerikan prisons.
*The life expectancy of HIV+ prisoners is half that of HIV+ non-
prisoners.
*The AIDS rate is seven times higher in state and federal prisons than
in the general U.S. population.
*In New York, more than 25% of prison AIDS diagnoses were first made
after the affected prisoner was dead.
*In New York, 47% of prisoners with AIDS were "Hispanic," 40% were
Black, and 11.5% were white.
*California prisons which do not have special units for HIV+ prisoners
provide no HIV/AIDS education.
*Few California prisons supply condoms and none supply bleach kits to
sterilize needles to inmates. Unprotected sex and sharing dirty needles
are two important ways that HIV is transmitted.
*More than 22 million people are released each year from Amerikan jails
and prisons.
*In 1988, California voters passed Proposition 96, an initiative
authored by the sheriff of Los Angeles County requiring prison and jail
physicians to give lists of known or suspected HIV-infected prisoners to
correctional staff.
Sources: "AIDS and HIV Infection in Prisoners,"
http://hivinsite.ucsf.edu/akb/1997/01pris. "AIDS in Prison Project:
Facts Sheet,"
http://www.aidsinfonyc.org/aip/facts.html. "POZ: Lethal
Lottery,"
http://www.thebody.com/poz/survival/11_98/lottery.html.
"Welcome to Hell: HIV+ In Prison,"
http://sonomacountyfreepress.org/welcome/welhiv.html.
* * *
SEXUAL ABUSE OF WIMMIN PRISONERS
Wimmin prisoners have systematically been victims of violence at the
hands of guards. California settled a lawsuit of wimmin who had been
raped and sold as sex slaves by the guards. Currently, Michigan
Department of Corrections (MDOC) is defending its torture of wimmin in
two lawsuits. One is a class action suit, Nunn v. MDOC and the other is
a lawsuit against the MDOC by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Michigan's governor Engler and the MDOC have shown their genuine
disregard for human life through their reactions to the investigations
and pending lawsuits. Human Rights Watch and other progressives have
investigated systematic abuses, and compiled reports from prisoners in
Michigan, California, Arizona, Georgia, Illinois, New York and the
District of Columbia by the U.S. Department of Justice. The HRW report
"All Too Familiar" published in 1996, details pervasive sexual
harassment, sexual abuse and the violation of wimmin's privacy by
guards. The reports also exposed the fact that wimmin had no recourse to
stop the sexual abuse and wimmin involved in the Nunn suit (filed in
1995) faced severe retaliation for their participation in struggling to
stop the guards' violence.
The United Snakes Department of Justice received such an extensive
compilation of complaints that it began its own investigation of the
Michigan DOC in 1994. During the course of this investigation, the
Department of Justice found that "nearly every woman...interviewed
reported various sexually aggressive acts of the guards." Wimmin who
have reported the abuses to investigators have been pinned with phony
tickets. In prison these are negative behavior reports that result in
the loss of good time (shortened sentences based on good behavior).
Wimmin have subsequently been given tickets alleging that they
themselves are the ones who have engaged in sexual misconduct. This adds
time to her prison sentence.
Three years later, the Department of Justice filed a federal lawsuit
against the MDOC (as well as the Arizona Department of Corrections) and
pushed for the improvement of conditions for wimmin at Crane
Correctional Facility in Coldwater and Scott Correctional Facility in
Plymouth. This suit hit the courts in fall 1998. The federal lawsuit
alleges the wimmin were subjected to "sexual misconduct and unlawful
invasions of privacy, as well as having been given inadequate medical
and mental health care." The suit charges the MDOC with the violation of
the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Person Act of 1980. And even
Amerika's own Department of Justice admits that many abuses will go
unreported because of the fear of retaliation against the prisoners.
Engler and the Michigan Department of Corrections claim that there are
no abuses against wimmin in the MDOC. They even went as far as to
justify the fact that wimmin prisoners are shackled while giving birth.
Engler and other pigs in Michigan claim there have been no wrong doings.
Yet they have obstructed investigations of the prison conditions. Guards
in Michigan raped and sexually abused the wimmin prisoners, threatened
additional violence for those reporting the abuses and threatened wimmin
who struggled against the individual acts of abuse. For instance, guards
would deny privileges or goods if wimmin did not cooperate and rewarded
wimmin who submitted. In other cases, guards engaged in sexual
relationships with prisoners without the explicit threat of force. In
such an atmosphere can anyone reasonably deny that this is coerced sex
and rape? In addition, guards used mandatory pat-frisks and room
searches to grope wimmin. Guards also watched the wimmin in the
bathrooms and living quarters and denied them any privacy. These acts
coupled with verbal degradation are not merely humiliating, these are
acts of violence against these wimmin who have no where to escape to and
have no recourse for ending all of these forms of abuse.
RAIL considers these acts torture, we don't see these as isolated or
abuses which would go away if only a few guards were punished. These are
acts of violence which mirror the entire Amerikan prison system. Prisons
are not set up to help people become productive members of society, they
are set up as a form of social control and a means to deny the poor and
oppressed any semblance of freedom.
Several groups less radical than RAIL have stated that Michigan is
showing that it condones these abuses. In 1995, the MDOC obstructed
federal prosecutors access to the prisoners involved in the Nunn suit.
MDOC director Kenneth McGinnis denied the allegations by Human Rights
Watch and in 1997 disallowed any further investigation of the wimmin
prisoners' conditions by such groups. Most recently, Engler denied a
United Nations delegate access to Crane and Scott on the night before
the pre-arranged visit. This was merely six months before the U.$. re-
started its military campaign against the Iraqi people allegedly because
of obstruction of UN investigations - though we know that is not the
real reason.(See Iraq story, Page 1)
RAIL has heard stories of torture by wimmin prisoners in Michigan and
has publicized the ongoing sexual abuse. At this time, we do not have
the ability to fight against the torture of prisoners in court. But we
are organizing on the outside to expose the abuses and to get the words
of prisoners heard. We also work with United Struggle from Within to
help prisoners meet their needs and organize for winnable improvements
of material conditions. Genuine feminism works toward the end of
national, class and gender oppression. Feminism which merely advances
the status of First World wimmin is fake feminism. The majority of the
world's wimmin are members of Third World nations. The Third World
carries imperialist nations on its back. Genuine feminism fights for the
liberation of the oppressed, not the advancement of the already
privileged and parasitic.
Inside the United States of Imperialism, Black, Latino, Indigenous and
immigrant wimmin are members of nations controlled and dominated by the
white settler nation. This relationship between white settler Amerika
and its internal colonies is similar to the way imperialist Amerika
controls the Third World militarily, economically and politically.
Prisons are a tool of oppression principally aimed against Amerika's
internal colonies. In the case of sexual abuse within prisons, this tool
of national oppression paves the way for amplified gender oppression.
Fighting for justice for wimmin (and all members) of internal colonies
is essential to genuinely building feminism. Fighting for the end to
imperialism and settler nation colonialism is the only way that nations
will be free from foreign control which perpetuates gender oppression.
RAIL urges all progressives and feminists to build public opposition
against the sexual abuse of wimmin in prisons and to build opposition to
the Amerikan prison system in general. As revolutionary feminists, we
must oppose the entire prison system while campaigning for winnable
battles within the current system. Reports of rampant sexual abuse,
wimmin being sold into sexual slavery by guards and countless stories of
torture have come in from all prisons - not just in Michigan. Sexual
abuses of prisoners will not end even if the MDOC receives a slap on the
wrist or is forced to cosmetically overhaul its wimmin's prisons through
guard sensitivity training. Without ending the Amerikan Lockdown, it is
impossible to stop the sexual and other human rights abuses within these
gulags.
Sources: Information compiled from information prisoners have sent to
RAIL, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International - check their
websites. RAIL is also working on bring a lawyer involved in the case to
speak - check our website for updated information on the event.
* * *
DESPITE BOURGEOIS REFORM ATTEMPTS, BRUTALITY CONTINUES IN KALIFORNIAN PRISONS
CALIFORNIA-A federal court denounced Pelican Bay State Prison as an
"instrument of wholesale brutality" in 1995, but according to an L.A.
Times report, further investigations into the matter have been iced by
the Kalifornia prison guard's union.(1)
When state investigators were brought in to stop abuses they were,
surprise, stripped of their power by state correctional officials at a
crucial point in the investigation. Kalifornia prison guards, the
richest and most powerful union in Kalifornia, and top officials at the
Department of Korrections (DOC), know the system is designed
specifically for such abuse. Only one guard has been convicted on
charges of abuse, though investigators believe there is a far-reaching
conspiracy to brutalize inmates. However, the state investigators and
the Times have only come part way out from of the rock they live under,
believing the conspiracy is to protect a few "rogue guards" who are to
blame for setting up stabbings, shootings and beatings of prisoners.
The warden truncated the probe and soon the investigators found
themselves the subject of investigation by the DOC. "The department let
us down and let itself down," said Capt. Dan Smith, head of the internal
affairs probe.(1) The FBI has now taken over the investigation, the
second time it has taken the unusual step of investigating Kalifornia
prisons since 1994. The guard's union blames investigators for
delivering a shoddy investigation,(1) but given the union's clout it's
not likely the team could deliver anything else. The union contributed
nearly $1.5 million dollars to the Wilson administration and heavily
backs Democrat governor Grey Davis, who has "gained sufficient influence
to emerge as an almost equal partner in the state's $4-billion-a-year
prison system."(1)
Guard's union tactics to disrupt the investigation included violating
state codes and launching unauthorized investigations of the probe team.
All the team managed to piece together was enough evidence to lead to
the firing of one officer and a 14-week trial of officer Jose Garcia,
who was convicted on four out of eight felony charges in connection with
scheming to set up convicted child molesters for shooting or stabbing.
During the trial other officers were named by the prosecution as
uncharged co-conspirators.
In Amerika's dungeons "shot callers" are used to do the guard's bidding
and gifts flow freely to them.
Pelican Bay, the state's highest security prison, is notorious for the
viciousness of its brutality. By 1995, brutality in the SHU's spilled
out into the general population units. Guards shoot and kill inmates who
engage in fist fights and routinely throw naked inmates into outdoor
cages for defying prison rules. "Guards forced one mentally ill black
inmate who had smeared his body in feces into a bath of scalding water,
holding him down until clumps of his skin melted off."(1)
Documents show that an alleged clique of guards, Sgt. Mike Powers, David
Lewis and Jose Garcia were avid racists and particularly brutal. Lawyers
for the clique maintain the gifts from the officers (including drugs and
weapons) to certain inmates were out of friendliness, or for information
and maintaining the peace.
Accounts of abuse from inmates were "strikingly consistent," according
to members of the investigative team. The investigative team itself was
riddled with anti-prisoner prejudice. One investigator, a Lt. Miller,
remarked. "You know how you can tell an inmate is lying? His lips are
moving."(1)
Another Times report reveals an officer who spoke out about the shooting
of an inmate who was engaged in a fist fights at Pleasant Valley Prison
was "ostracized and harassed, and several commanding officers then tried
to silence her, she said."(2) This most recent shooting of an unarmed
prisoner was finally deemed "unjustified" by a pig review board.(2) But
Lt. Patricia Newton, the guard who spoke out about the shooting, misses
the bigger picture of brutality against prisoners. "We are all victims
of that shooting," she said. "I feel for the family of inmate [Octavio]
Orozco and I feel for the guard who shot him, because the decisions he
made are split-second ones that are easy to second guess."(2)
Newton ignores the fact that shooting unarmed inmates who engage in
fights has a great precedence in Kalifornia and are hardly "split-
second" decisions, they are decisions based upon Kalifornia's systematic
brutalization of prisoners.
Orozco is one of 39 inmates to be murdered by Kalifornia prison guards
in the past decade.
Newton vigilantly maintains that most guard's are "heroes, silent heroes
every day,"(2) even though it is every prison guard's job to maintain
the status quo of oppression and systematic colonization of oppressed
nationals within the illegitimately defined borders of the u.$. Silent
heroes to the masses of white nation chauvinists in the u.$.: agents of
genocide to oppressed nationals.
The inmate who officer Bruce Brumana was trying to "protect" by
murdering Orozco had only one scratch as a result of the fight. No
warning shot was fired, not even a shout to desist or a whistle was
blown.
Though Newton received some harassment (not as much as a prisoner
experiences daily) she's done everything to not rock the boat.
The prison-industrial complex has the intended purpose of colonizing
oppressed nationals, as evident in the disproportionate amounts of
oppressed nationals who are victims of the Amerikkkan lock-down.
Revolutionaries should never expect the prison system to police itself -
as far as the system is concerned it is doing its job by concentrating
the genocide of oppressed nationals behind walls.
Work to abolish prisons and end the Amerikkkan lockdown!
1. Los Angeles Times, December 16, 1998. A1. 2. Los Angeles Times,
December 28, 1998. A1.
* * *
CALRAIL EXPOSES BLACK REVOLUTIONARY HISTORY
LOS ANGELES, CA - Students from Occidental College invited the
Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League (RAIL) to show the video "The
FBI's War on Black America" and give a brief presentation on the Black
Panther Party. The film showing was a success, introducing over a dozen
students to the history of the Black Panther Party and the FBI's
campaign of violence against Black nationalists. The students also
learned more about RAIL, its political agitation, and its Serve the
People programs.
During the lengthy and active discussion which followed the film,
several students earnestly debated the merits of multi-culturalism as a
strategy for change. Multi-culturalism is the latest variant of a theory
which says that bad ideas (e.g. racism) are responsible for oppression.
So to end oppression, people need to throw away their bad ideas, use
politically correct language, etc. But oppression is a fact of material
reality. For example, the oppression of Black people in the u.$. is the
legacy of 400 years of slavery and the colonial conditions which persist
in the Black nation to this day. Respecting Black culture [and which
culture is that? Frederick Douglass or Booker T. Washington?] will not,
by itself, change the material conditions of Black oppression. As the
Black Panthers said, "A slave in a daishiki is still a slave."
One student commented, "But if that's true, then everything we're doing
here [at a university heavily influenced by multi-culturalism] is a
waste of time!" Indeed, that's why political agitation and study are so
important - history has shown that some strategies are better than
others, and some strategies are complete failures. Choosing the correct
strategy is a matter of life death: To repeat past mistakes is a "waste
of time."
"The FBI's War on Black America" is one of many films which RAIL and the
Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM) show regularly in order to build
public opinion against u.$. imperialism. If you are interested in
hosting a similar event in your area, please contact your local RAIL or
MIM representatives, or write to the addresses on page 2.
* * *
OPPOSE SLAVERY IN PRISONS
Prisoners working with RAIL usually refer to prisons as kkkoncentration
kkkamps or slave plantations. The fact that Blacks are
disproportionately imprisoned has persuaded many prisoners and
progressives to consider prisons a tool of genocide against Amerika's
internal colonies. In addition to wharehousing the oppressed, prisons
are consitutionally allowed to use prisoners in slave labor. The
Thirteenth Amendment states that "Neither slavery nor involuntary
servitude, except as a punishment whereof the party shall have been duly
convicted, shall exist within the United States..." The abolition of
slavery is also part of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which
only shows that the United Snakes does not consider prisoners human
beings much like European settlers called dehumanized indigenous peoples
"savages" to justify genocide against them.
The fact that slavery is legal in prisons, the fact that states and
corporations are making profits from the labor of prisoners, and the
fact that more and more oppressed peoples are being thrown in prison
show that there is a profit incentive as well as a political incentive
to expand the capacity of prisons. Not only are prisons the state's
solution to rounding up the poor, locking away potential political
activists and destroying oppressed communities, prisons serve as a way
for the state and corporations to make big bucks. And as the
privatization of prisons increases, the profit making ability also
increases.
In the context of legal slavery and involuntary servitude, Michigan is
enacting laws which will force prisoners to pay for their own
incarceration. Michigan State Industries (MSI) runs factories and farms
using Michigan prisoners as workers. In 1992, MSI paid prisoners 24
cents an hour for unskilled factory labor. Unskilled workers on the
farms started at $1.62 an hour. (These are official pay rates, prisoners
write to RAIL saying they make much less.) In Fiscal Year 1991-92, MSI
factory and farm operations netted a total of $973,997,000 on goods
produced by prisoners. Prisoners in other states, like Texas, do not get
paid at all.
If prisoners refuse to work, they face solitary confinement, loss of
good time and other priveldges. Late Black Panther Party Minister of
Defense Huey P. Newton refused to work for less than minimum wage when
he was in prison. As a result, he spent more than 30 months alone with
no daylight in a cell which wasn't big enough for a grown person to lie
down on the floor.
Some argue that prisoners have committed a crime and therefore there is
no reason they should not work as part of their imprisonment and
punishment. In a more just society, work and productive activities
within prison certainly would help prisoners to learn skills and build
their ability to contribute to society. The U.$. long ago scrapped its
pretense that prisons are about rehabilitation. Now, the ability to
exploit the labor of prisoners serves as an added bonus to locking up
the oppressed. And currently, Michigan as well as most other states,
makes prisoners pay for basic human needs such as medical care,
toiletries etc. Prisoners must use the pittance they receive from work
to pay for these at hiked-up prices. Prisoners must also pay for things
like paper and pencils and any similar 'luxury' items. They must buy
these from the prison commissary that hikes up prices much like the
plantation stores that share croppers were forced to purchase goods
from.
Find out more about the struggle against prison slavery at RAIL's 3rd
annual May Day celebrations. For more information on prison labor, write
to MIM for MIM Theory #11 ($6) "Amerikan Prisons on Trial..."
* * *
PHONE COMPANY INCREASES THEFT FROM PRISONERS' FAMILIES.
The Bell Atlantic Phone Company and the Massachusetts Department of
Corrections work together to repress prisoners and cut off contact with
their families. Prisoners are restricted to a list of 10 numbers they
may call, and must do so collect. Collect is expensive enough starting
at 46 cents, but in prison it's worse, starting at 86 cents. Per its
current contract, Bell Atlantic gives 40% of the receipts to the DOC.
The contract expires in March, so the state put it out to bid. But these
bids were unlike other state bids, were the lowest price wins." Said one
former prisoner and prison activist: "It's like extortion.... The open
bid is supposed to be for the cheapest provider, when in this case the
state is looking for the biggest profit margin."
Bell Atlantic won the new contract by upping its percentage to the state
by 2% to 42%.
Prisoners come from the poorest families in the state, and now the DOC
is trying to get these families to pay even more through the phone
charges. In the first 3 years of the phone theft program, the DOC taxed
these poor families $6.6 million. This all serves to discourage outside
contact as well as reporting what really goes on inside the walls.
Notes: Boston Globe 8 Jan 99, p. B1
* * *
U$/EUROPEAN IMPERIALISM SPONSORS NIGERIAN MURDERS
The U$ and english backed Nigerian military dictatorship has recently
stepped up its murderous activities in the Niger Delta and in nearby
Sierra Leone. These terrorist operations in Nigeria and Sierra Leone are
in direct support for western imperialists.
In Sierra Leone the Nigerian army leads a "peacekeeping" force that
invaded Sierra Leone and intervened in their civil war. Last year this
Nigerian led invasion force known as ECOMOG re-installed the english
puppet regime led by Tejan Kabbah. Recently rebel forces in Sierra Leone
have gone on the offensive and appear to be in control of Freetown, the
capital of Sierra Leone. Almost all of the fighting has been between
the Nigerian army and the Revolutionary United Front (RUF). The English
government has been calling for increased international support for
Nigeria which has been suffering several defeats.(1)
In Nigeria itself, the Nigerian army has moved in on the region
populated by the Ijaw people. The Ijaw people have begun to rebel
against the Nigerian military government. Just like the Ibo people who
are neighbors of the Ijaw, they have grown resentful of their lands
being controlled by foreign oil companies. American oil companies, like
Shell, are plundering the region of its natural resources. The Ijaw are
asking for their share but instead are being given extreme
repression.(2)
The region is currently suffering from dire poverty. The oil revenue
could alleviate the human suffering that stems from this poverty. For
this reason the Ijaw people have demanded that foreign oil companies
pullout of their homeland. Ijaws have also taken over oil wells and
export sites and have managed to shut-off over a third of Nigeria's oil
output. (2)
The response of the Nigerian government has been swift and extremely
brutal. The Nigerian army has murdered at least fifty unarmed Ijaws.
Married womyn have been dragged from their homes and raped. Wounded
demonstrators have been pulled out of their beds to be bayoneted or
shot. Two warships have been deployed to the area to complement the
tanks and troops already patrolling the area and terrorizing the people.
All of this is being done simply to protect the interests of Amerikan
and European oil companies. (3)
This is the army that england wants to build support for
internationally. This is the government praised by amerikkka for moving
Nigeria towards democracy since the death of Sani Abacha. It is plain
that the anglo-amerikkkan imperialist pigs have absolutely no respect
for humanity. Under these circumstances it must be obvious to all
thoughtful human beings that the only thing either england or amerika
could possibly be interested in on the African continent is uninhibited
access to natural resources belonging to other nations. The only thing
in their way is the people that live on that land. The easiest solution
for the imperialists is to eliminate such troublesome peoples as the
Ibos and Ijaws.
The Nigerian army has repeatedly shown their willingness to be hired by
england and amerika for these jobs and more. What amerika and england
are praising and building international support for is their economic
interests regardless of the human suffering that it causes in other
nations. Pigs like the leaders of england, amerika, and Nigeria panic
when nations demand an end to exploitation and foreign domination. For
such swine genocide is a perfectly acceptable solution.
The majority of Nigeria's oil exports go to amerika and Europe. The
majority of Nigeria's military budget comes from amerika and europe. The
actions of the terrorist Nigerian military dictatorship and the U$ and
english support for these actions shows quite clearly that not only is
the genocide of the Ijaws acceptable to the U$ and english imperialists
but that it is also their intention.
Notes: 1. BBC January 7, 1999 2. New York Times January 3, 1999 3. The
Guardian (Lagos) January 7, 1999 p. 29
* * *
MORAIL RALLIES AGAINST BRUTALITY
January 8, 1999 -MORAIL held a vigil in front of the St. Louis Police
Department to mark the 2nd anniversary of the killing of Garland Carter,
Jr. by a former St. Louis Police Officer who is currently employed as a
cop in Des Peres, a municipality in St. Louis County.
The event successfully mobilized St. Louisans for the April 24th
"Millions for Mumia" in Philadephia, Penn. MORAIL diststributed many
leaflets about what people could do to free Mumia and copies of the most
recent MIM Notes with the Mumia article on the bottom of the front page.
We also spread the word that the pig who shot Garland Carter, Jr. in the
back three years ago may no longer be a St. Louis city pig, but is
working in the St.Louis County municipality of Des Peres. We also
successfully foiled a pig plot to abandon our demonstration. A St.
Louis County and a city pig tried to tell us that we were on federal
property and that if we didn't leave in five minutes that we'd be facing
federal trespassing charges. We knew that was a lie because we were on
the sidewalk, and federal property begins at the steps. We've had many
demonstrations in the same place, so we knew our so-called rights.
Fighting police brutality is an important part in the fight against the
overall system of imperialism that keeps the Black, Latino and First
Nations within the U$ in poverty and under constant repression, while
their Two-Third's world brothers and sisters, or the majority of the
world's people, slave for imperialist profits. Having rallies and
showing dissent against imperialist actions is integral to educating and
organizing the masses.
Contact MORAIL to get involved and fight against all aspects of
imperialism.
* * *
HEALTH CARE IN AMERIKA'S PRISONS: BRUTALITY IN A WHITE COAT
Imprisonment in Amerika is political because prisons in this country are
used as a means of keeping internal colonies from organizing against
imperialism. "Crimes" and "criminals" are defined in Amerika so that
great numbers of Black, Latino, and First Nations people are locked up
and held down from agitating against imperialism. Prisons in Amerika are
designed as torture chambers with no regard for humanity and human
potential. Health care is routinely denied or delayed, because the
injustice system does not see prisoners as people deserving of the most
basic services.
Prisoners must jump through all sorts of hoops to simply see a nurse,
often when they are seriously ill or dying. The U.$. supreme court has
held that prisoners do have the "right" to medical treatment. However,
the standard of care required is quite low. In the 1976 case of Estelle
v. Gamble, the supreme court held that prisoners have the constitutional
right to be free from deliberate indifference to their serious medical
needs under the Eighth Amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual
punishment. The standard of medical care is that of prevailing community
standards.
"Mere negligence" or a "difference of opinion" as to proper course of
treatment are not actionable. When alleging a violation of one's Eighth
Amendment right to be free from deliberate indifference, the prisoner
must first allege a "serious medical need." This means that it was
either diagnosed by a doctor as requiring treatment or that it is a
condition that even a lay-person would know needed medical attention.
Prisoners have recourse under the Civil Rights Act of 1871, otherwise
known as 1983, to allege constitutional violations. 1983 makes it
unlawful for state or local officials to deprive any person of any
rights, privileges or immunities secured by the Constitution. 1983 is a
remedy that may be used by any person claiming a violation of her/his
federal civil rights.
While some prisoners have won their cases in court regarding medical
treatment (e.g., failure to treat an inmate with previously diagnosed
cancer and refusal by the warden to give an inmate medication prescribed
by the prison doctor) the courts view many prisoner claims of medical
mistreatment as "mere differences of opinion" between the prisoner and
the medical staff.(For more information, see The Rights of Prisoners,
4th ed., an ACLU handbook, 1988)
In Indiana and other states, the health care system in some prisons is
privatized, so that it is run by a corporation seeking to make a profit
by cutting costs wherever possible. Prisoners must pay $5.00 to see the
doctor and an additional $5.00 per prescription medication.(An Indiana
prisoner Nov. 9, 1998) The Indiana DOC policy on health care provides
that prisoners must fill out a two-part form requesting a health care
service (sick call, medication requests, dental and eye care services,
substance abuse and psychological services). The policy states that the
forms are checked every day, and that "every effort" will be made to
notify the prisoner of the status of his request.(Indiana DOC Offender
Handbook, 1996) The handbook further states that in the case of an
emergency, the nearest staff person should be notified. The handbook
does not specify what action the nearest staff person will take.
In Michigan, prisoners must pay for all non-emergency, prisoner-
initiated health services. According to a June 1997 notice from MDOC,
the prisoner's account will be charged $3.00 for the health care unless:
the visit is initiated by health care staff; the visit is for a work-
related injury which must be documented by the prisoner's supervisor;
the visit is for testing for HIV, sexually transmitted diseases,
infestations or reportable communicable diseases; for evaluation or
treatment of a mental health need; or the visit is for a medical
emergency, a condition for which delay in treatment may result in death
or permanent impairment. The notice further states that "necessary
health care will always be available regardless of prisoner's ability to
pay."(We doubt this, especially considering the stories reported below
by our comrades under lock and key.)
A comrade in Iowa reported that every prisoner receives one annual free
medical exam which includes a dental, medical (urine and blood analysis)
and physical check-up. If the prisoner declines these "free
examinations" s/he must sign a waiver form releasing the institution
from liability. Further, in the future, if the prisoner develops a non-
life threatening condition, s/he has to pay for the full cost of medical
care before s/he will be treated. If a prisoner requires medical
attention prior to the annual exam, s/he must put in a sick call slip
for $3.00 to be seen by a nurse. The $3.00 is deducted from the inmate's
account whether or not s/he sees a doctor or treated for the medical
problem. Most of the time the prisoners get to talk only to the nurse
for their $3.00. If a prisoner gets into a fight or altercation with
another prisoner, or a correctional officer, that prisoner has to pay
$3.00 for treatment of the injuries to the other s/he may have caused
(even if inadvertently or if instigated by the C.O.).(An Iowa prisoner,
July 20, 1998)
In Michigan, one comrade reported that in his koncentration kamp, two
prisoners had seizures - one had a seizure in the middle of the night,
and his cellmate pressed the emergency button and yelled for help, but
the pigs refused to help and just stood at cell door and made fun of the
prisoner having a seizure, saying, "Look at him, he's flopping around
like a fish." The other prisoner went into seizure in the dining hall,
and a nurse was called. The nurse stopped to finish smoking her
cigarette on the way to respond to the emergency call. This same
prisoner also reported that the use of suicide watch is abused as a way
to keep an eye on prisoners who the pigs do not really believe are
suicidal. When this prisoner was placed on trumped-up suicide watch, the
prison denied him food for one week, but claimed in their official log
that he was on a hunger strike.(A Michigan prisoner, Dec. 3, 1998)
RAIL prints this information to get more news out to people who are not
in prison about what is going on behind the walls of so-called
"correctional" institutions. RAIL organizes with prisoners to build
awareness of and opposition to conditions like those facing prisoners
who require health care. If you have information about prisoner health
care and want to contribute to future publications like this one, or if
you just want to learn more and help us publicize brutality like that
described in this article, get in touch. With increased activism among
prisoners and people on the outside we can increase the opposition to
brutality in prisons and build activism against this brutality
* * *
DRUGS, GENOCIDE AND SELF-INTEREST
The following are exerts from a RAIL comrades' self-criticism.
Criticism and self-criticism was an integral part of change during
communist China. The process involves a deep reflection into one's own
ideas, where those ideas come from and who those ideas serve. The
objective of throwing off wrong ideas for ideas that serve the masses is
strived for through group participation, study and open criticism.
Though the following is still in the evolutionary process, there are
many points that prove useful to exposing the nature of Drug Use in the
U$.
This comrade is currently working on changing incorrect, bourgeois
serving ideas that have held back their own potential and the potential
of the masses. The testament aims to touch-on the realities of Drug Use,
and also to work out the responsibility each comrade has to serve the
masses and for each person to take responsibility for his/her own
actions.
While there are some comrades who are less dispensable then others,
every person has the potential to become a successful revolutionary.
Living in the belly of the beast, many people must simultaneously
struggle against the beast of selfishness in order to truly serve the
oppressed masses and not perpetuate wrong ideas that support capitalism
and imperialism.
We encourage all to write in and respond to this comrade.
Drug use is very self-destructive. In fact I am having a hard time
writing this largely because I am still trying to get myself back
together. It is probably not the only thing in my messed up life that
damaged my ability to stay focused and think logically but realistically
it has to be the biggest factor.
A lot of people, especially young people, think that drug use is a way
to raise consciousness. Some people will even take it as far as to
consider drug use revolutionary. This never was true and it never will
be.
In the sober reality of the diseased society we live in drugs are a
weapon of the imperialists and they have been for a long time. The
filthy english used opium to make their oppression of China easier.
Fucking Amerikkka did the same thing by giving whiskey to the First
Nations. The CIA imported cocaine to simultaneously destroy the
Nicaraguan revolution and attack the Black Nation. The once great Huey
Newton died over a fucked up drug deal. The liquor stores in oppressed
nation communities are stocked full of cheap malt liquor and the sorry
crackers running Anheuser-Busch are laughing all the way to the bank.
If it really was true that drug use was a way to raise one's
consciousness [drugs] would be much harder to find. Whenever I have
tried to find books written by great heroes such as Joseph Stalin, Mao
Zedong, Ho Chi Minh, and Franz Fanon I have found that it can be nearly
impossible to get what I am seeking. Often the books I want are not even
in the library anymore as the pigs have quietly removed much of this
highly important literature.
Because it is so simple for addicts to locate the drugs it is difficult
to believe pig cops if they say that they do not also know. The pigs
choose to intentionally leave the drugs in the neighborhood for the same
reason that they remove the best books from the libraries and censor MIM
Notes from prisoners. All of this is part of a plan to retard the growth
of consciousness of the masses and primarily those of oppressed nations.
When the pigs do make drug arrests, they tend to be selective about who
goes down. Arresting the addicts but not the dealers and distributors is
good for the pigs. It allows them to maintain a steady stream of
disenfranchised people flowing into the jails and prisons. If the pigs
were to cut off the sources of drugs they would have no more addicts to
arrest for theft, possession, prostitution, etc.
Many of the addicts who manage to escape death and imprisonment will be
too preoccupied with their filthy habits and bare survival to be of any
threat to the empire that is destroying them, their families, and their
Nation. Saturating oppressed nations with potent drugs is a highly
effective technique for genocide. It is the only genocidal plan that is
so easy to carry out because it is the only one in which the victims
will willingly cooperate with their killers.
This gets to the real deal. All of that bullshit about mind expansion,
consciousness raising, bucking the system, etc. is just about justifying
what feels good. It is just amerikan individualism. Other people use
their messed up lives as their excuse to mess themselves up even more.
Either way it is just escapism and defeatism. Making excuses and doing
drugs, regardless of the justification, will never solve any of the
problems caused by imperialism. People that think that life in the
present day real world sucks should be working to change that reality
rather than working to hide from it.
It is entirely true that the U$ empire goes to great lengths to
contribute to the rise in drug addiction. This does not mean that
addicts are blameless. We should not collaborate with the government
pushers anymore than Jews should have helped the Nazis gas them. It
almost never happens that people are forced to take drugs. Becoming a
dope-head is a conscious act. Addiction is the only disease people catch
voluntarily. It is our own fault for trying that shit in the first
place. There is no easy way out of imperialism. There are no shortcuts.
Using drugs to escape from amerika is only a temporary solution that
often leads to permanent problems. Unless addicts confront this and
accept responsibility for their messed up actions they are likely to
continue to repeat the same pattern of escapism and self-destruction
even after periods of temporary sobriety. Not only do we need to accept
responsibility for the bad actions we do as addicts, we also need to
accept responsibility for the consequences.
When you don't pay rent because you were smoking crack, it is not your
landlord's fault. It is not the dope man's fault. It is not the pig
cop's fault. We already know that the pigs like to leave that shit in
the neighborhood. We already know the dope man will always take your
money. We already know we get evicted if we don't pay rent and we
already know it sucks to be homeless. True that the landlord, cop, and
dope-man are all pigs, but we still did it to ourselves. They were just
real happy to help us.
Those of us that are addicts, alcoholics, pot-heads, or whatever we
choose to be called should not expect our straight comrades to do all of
the work for us either. We should take responsibility for our own
actions. We must accept the fact that we have caused a lot of problems
and we must work hard to correct ourselves. We should strive to
eliminate our old bad ideas through work and study and replace them with
new revolutionary ideas. For most of us, if we simply put the time,
labor, and money that we formerly applied to drug abuse into making
revolution we would make a substantial difference.
People need hope. People need to know that there is something for them
to turn to and be a part of. People need to know that change is a real
possibility. As revolutionaries and leaders we are the people that can
provide these things to the masses. In this way we can seriously reduce
the effects of the enemy's war on humanity and their narcotic weapons.
* * *
MASSES PROTEST U.$. SPOSORED TERROR
by RC5D7
Many people gathered at the gates of Fort Benning in Columbus, GA. on
Nov. 22nd demanding that the u.$. army school of the amerikas be shut
down. Known as the "school of assassins", it 's function is to train
soldiers of Latin Amerikan countries under u.$. economic and political
domination in the suppression of people's movements for reform and/or
revolution. Methods such as physical and psychological torture during
interrogation sessions; assassination of trade union organizers, peasant
leaders and religious people dedicated to empowering the poor and the
mass murder of villagers to "flush out" guerillas are just some of the
things taught at the SOA.
Graduates are responsible for the vast majority of war crimes in the
western hemisphere during the past fifty years. Established in Panama in
1946, it was expelled in 1984 under terms of the Panama Canal Treaty.
Then president Jorge Illueca called it "the biggest base for
destabilization in Latin amerika". It fittingly relocated to Fort
Benning in Columbus, GA. The SOA's military insignia depicts the
flagship of Christopher Columbus surrounded by the flags of client
nations. True to its seal, the SOA continues the tradition of genocide
and enslavement of indigenous peoples by white colonial settler states.
Nations with the worst human rights records send the most soldiers to
the school of the amerikas: El Salvador during the bloodiest years of
death squad activity, Guatemala during the "purging" of 200,000
indigenous peoples, Argentina during the "dirty little war" against
leftist dissidents, Nicaragua during the reign of the Somozas, etc. etc.
In 1996, the Pentagon revealed that manuals contained "...certain
passages [that] appeared to condone practices such as execution of
guerillas, extortion, physical abuse, coercion, and false
imprisonment..."(1) The report cited that the SOA and southern command
had used these manuals from 1982-1991. Several former SOA students were
instrumental in exposing these manuals (seven manuals containing nearly
1200 pages in the original Spanish). "The difference between the
conventional and the unconventional training is that we were trained to
torture human beings. They would use people from the streets of Panama,
because they would bring them into the base and the experts would train
us on how to obtain that information through torture. And there were
several ways of doing it."(2)
Jose' Valle, a SOA graduate and ex-member of the u$ backed Honduran
death squad battalion 3-16, told Robert Richter in his 1995 film, School
of Assassins: "They told us we could respect human rights, that it was
not necessary to beat the prisoners. But that was in the classroom. The
problem was that in the actual situation the interrogators were told
that they had to get the information out of the people in any way
possible."(3)
Since 1990, the School of the Amerikas Watch has organized protests at
Fort Benning in November, including acts of civil disobedience. In the
past people have protested and been arrested. This year exceeded
everyone's expectations as participants walked onto the base with
coffins and crosses bearing the names of victims murdered at the hands
of SOA graduates and their accomplices. Overwhelmed by the numbers
trespassing onto the base, the army decided to apprehend the protesters
by loading them onto buses and then dropping them off at a nearby park 2
miles from the base. In previous years arrests were made and those who
crossed onto the base the second time or more were charged and
incarcerated from 2 to 6 months and/or fined $3,000. This year's protest
took on a whole different character from the start.
The SOA is just a small part of the imperialist domination of Third
World nations. RAIL and MIM say that the best way to deal with the
imperialists is by organizing struggles to expose imperialist crimes
such as the SOA while also struggling against the principle force of
oppression and exploitation both within and outside u.$. artificial
borders - imperialism.
1. Intelligence Oversight Board (Anthony S. Harrington, Chair),
"Report on the Guatemala Review", June 28, 1996,
[
http://www.us.net/cip/l. 2. Ibid; pg.39. 3. Robert Richter, INSIDE
THE SCHOOL OF ASSASSINS (video), 1996. Available through Richter
Productions, (tel.) 212-947-1395.
* * *
PIG KILLS PAROLE
In his January 6 State address New York's pig governor George Pataki
unveiled a new plan to completely abolish the parole system in the
Empire state. The Governor also pushed for a state prisoners DNA
database and an increase in the penalties for juveniles. Because Blacks,
Latinos and First Nation members are incarcerated at rates far higher
than their contribution to the so-called crime rate, this plan will only
further state sponsored national oppression by forcing more prisoners to
stay in prison longer. In all the talk to change the NY prison system,
no one mentioned reforming the state's draconian drug laws which many
people believe to be the main reason for the serious overcrowding
problem in the New York state prison system(1).
Denying a prisoner parole exposes the belief held by Amerikans, that a
prisoners can't be reformed. The alleged crimes that a person commits
and a white-lead trial, will be the determining factors in a persons
punishment, not whether or not they change their ideas while in prison.
Without the parole system the prisoners will do much more prison time.
Pigs will continue to lock up just as many, if not more people,
especially Black and Latinos, so that abolishing the parole system will
lead to an increase in the size of the prison population.
The state's juvenile offenders are also disproportionately Black and
Latino. Increasing the penalties for underage lawbreakers would also
serve to ensure a growth in the size of the prison population and a
reduction of the Black and Latino populations outside the concentration
camp walls. The two plans together would all but guarantee New York
state would need to build more prisons.
The white population would stand to benefit greatly from the combined
effects of Pataki's racist proposals. Places like Attica New York have a
nearly 100% white population. The white nation is hired to work in the
prisons as guards and other prison related jobs. An ever increasing
prison population guarantees this bought off populace permanent jobs.
When the new prisons are built they will also be built in similar
communities, bringing jobs to small predominantly white towns. No
possibility for parole for Latinos and Blacks means no possibility for
unemployment for whites.
This denial of parole also exposes how the prison system, and U$ law in
general, has no interest in reform. The effect will be that a person
will be tried and convicted of an alleged crime and sent to spend x
number of years locked up in a concrete block. The trend for cutting
programs will mean little to no education, health, or medical facilities
but an overwhelming amount of violence, repression, censorship and
racist attacks. Even under such conditions alone it is almost impossible
to allow a person to review their mistaken thoughts and change. Now with
the harsher sentences and no-parole standard, the state is coming out
plainly and saying once again that pigs like Pataki believe oppressed
nation members are incapable of change.
In Communist China on the other hand, a prison sentence was set by how
far a person reflected on their ideas and were able to recognize the
wrongness of their crime. Emphasis was put on getting a person out of
prison and back into society where they could be productive. Pataki's
plan emphasizes locking up more oppressed nations and throwing away the
key.
In RAIL's effort to struggle against imperialism, RAIL opposes all
actions that strengthen the prison system. We encourage progressive
people to oppose such racist policies, but to also struggle against the
overall imperialist conditions causing oppression.
* * *
POPULATION CONTROL GENOCIDE
Across the world, the U$ and other imperialists have used the term
population control to cover up it's genocidal practice of sterilizing
and forcing women onto painful and hazardous birth control devices. The
imperialists say they are doing it for the women's own good, stating
that they are overpopulating the world and causing their own poverty.
Some so-called "environmentalists", like the Sierra Club, even say that
Third World population control will curb the destruction of the
environment. Both statements are just excuses for the real issue,
imperialism. Poverty is caused by an unequal distribution of resources
and environmental degradation is primarily from the resource-depleting
overproduction associated with imperialism.
Third World wimmin are having more children. The initial increase was
due mostly to advances in medicine, public health and better nutrition.
However, as imperialism makes these advances only available to a small
minority of the world, mainly the First World, the boom is due to
imperialism. The first of which is colonialism.(1) Similar to when
European settlers arrived in Amerika and murdered millions of First
Nation people, imperialist colonialism has a legacy across the world of
murdering the indigenous inhabitants of a so-called "discovered" land.
The drastic drop in indigenous populations forces the people to have
more children in order to survive.
High infant and child mortality rates amongst Third World populations
also causes an increase in birth rate. The lasting effects of
colonialism and imperialism have forced the Third World into abject
poverty. Traditional medicines that were once relied on have become
extinct in order to make room for Multi-national factories. And while
many pharmaceutical plants employ Third World people, most of the actual
medicines end up in the hands of the First World alone. The constant
relocation of people from their traditional lands has forced the
majority to live in cramped, unsanitary conditions near the factories
that they rely on for survival. In order to compensate for the high
mortality rates caused by these conditions, families are forced to have
more children.
Super-exploitation also forces families to have a higher amount of
children. The average Third World worker makes in a week what the
average First World worker makes in one-quarter of a days work. Some
will argue that the Third World Workers standard of living is lower and
that their goods are cheaper. However, the reality is that because many
people are kicked off their land and can no longer survive self-
sufficiently, they are completely at the mercy of the imperialist
market. Many goods that are available cheaply, year-round in the U$,
like bananas, are too expensive and unavailable for the people who
actually pick and grow them in the Third World. The high prices and low
wages combine to force Third World people to supplement their income,
and one way is having more children who will be able to work.
Each day 35,000 children die from hunger-related causes, even though the
world produces enough for every person to receive 2,500 calories a day
(150 more then the basic minimum). So where do all the food and
resources go? To the First World which holds only 20% of the world's
population, but consumes 80% of its resources. 3,616 calories are
produced for each person each day in the U$. Surplus food sits in
storage, waiting for the prices to go up in order to make a bigger
profit...not feed people.(2)
Likewise, in 1994, $767 billion was spend on global military
expenditures which total more then the total income of the poorest 45
percent of the world's population. Each person in the U$ uses an average
of 24 barrels of oil per year, compared to 12 in Europe and 1 in Africa.
And the top one-fifth of the world's population controls 70% of the
world's energy and produce two-thirds of all greenhouse gases and 90
percent of ozone depleting chlorofluorocarbons.(2) Given this
information, it is easy to see that the real people destroying the
environment and causing poverty are the First World nations and their
over consumption.
The population control argument is a smokescreen to keep First World
people fat off the rest of the world's resources and labor. Also, in
many instances of female sterilization and forced birth control, the
subjugation of Third World wimmin has directly benefited First World
wimmin, not just economically. For instance, Norplant was used
extensively on Third World wimmin in order to test it effectiveness for
future availability to First World wimmin.(2) First World wimmin benefit
by having a safe drug given to them that allows them to buy into and
reap material benefits from the patriarchal standard.
"Population control" is just about actual control of the oppressed
populace. It serves to limit the number of people who can speak out
against injustice, while keeping the rest of the populace servants to
imperialist exploitation, and therefore servants to First World people.
The issue is not overpopulation, but unequal distribution of resources
and exploitation. True environmentalists and feminists need to oppose
population control and support the majority of the world's people. Stop
population control genocide! Support anti-imperialism!
(1)Reproductive Right and Wrongs; the Global Politics of Population
Control. By Betsy Hartmann. South End Press, Boston Ma. (2)MIM Theory
12, Environment Society and Revolution. p 46-53.
* * *
AGAINST THE WALL
Leaning against the wall
My self bent under its weight
I glance across the street
He swaggers with eyes of terror
I dare not look, just quick
Peeks
Back and forth
I keep my hands in my pockets
Not that it is cold
Or that I have anything in them But to protect myself from false
accusation
He looks my way...
Skims the area clean with his eyes
"What are you doin', boy?!"
He's not interested in my thoughts of pain or change,
He wants to know about trouble
And to him
I
Am
It
Fat stomach rolling over his blue pants, he crosses the intersection,
Brushing back his bristled hair, spiked up under his visored blue cap,
To the 'other side'
It's time for interrogation
"What you going to do boy? What plans have you made? You know about that
stolen car? Broken window? Tipped over trash cans? Store Robbery? Gang?
Murder? Drugs? Come on...tell me! What I that look you are giving me?
Ah...so you're trying to be tough. We know just what to do with tough-
guys who never learn who to obey."
He's here to keep the peace.
It's always amazed me how the only
Piece
He ever
Keeps
Is the one I'm never
Allowed
To touch.
That one that keeps "their" front yards Green and clean
And mine
Paved
In
Blood.
We're livin' a life up against the wall
* * *
IS THE WAR ON DRUGS A WAR AGAINST THE OPPRESSED?
RAIL answers this question with a definitive 'yes'. The War on Drugs is
an attack against primarily Black and Latino nationals. Members of the
Black, Latino and First Nations are disproportionately imprisoned as a
result of the so-called war on drugs. The war has meant increased
policing of poor which are predominantly Black and Latino. The war has
meant a dramatic increase in the imprisonment of oppressed nationals as
well as youth of all nations. The war has meant that individuals with
drug abuse problems are not helped to kick the habit or assisted with
adequate education access, it means they are housed in the growing
prison industrial complex of the U.$. The war on drugs is a means to
imprison the oppressed, it is not a means to eradicate drug use. The
U.$. is sparing no expense to increase incarceration. Currently 1 out of
every 35 adults are under the control of the criminal injustice system.
Consider some statistics:
The majority (in actual numbers, not just rate) of people incarcerated
in Michigan are Black. Despite the fact that Michigan's population is
about 14% Black, the Black population in Michigan prisons is about 60%.
The majority are in prison for drug offenses. But this does not mean
that Blacks are using drugs more than whites.
According to the Department of Justice, 52% of crack users were white
and 38% were Black. However, 88% of the sentences for crack were against
Blacks! Only 4.1% were against whites. We don't advocate imprisoning
more white people, but this clearly shows that Blacks are receiving
sentences more often than whites despite being a minority in the
population and a minority of crack users.
It's clear that Blacks are getting sentenced more frequently for crack,
but another component in looking at the war on drugs as a war against
people is the mandatory minimum sentencing laws. In part, these laws
require that crack offenses warrant more prison time than powder cocaine
offenses.
Possessing 5 grams of crack gets a person the same amount of prison time
that 500 grams of powder cocaine does. This means longer sentences for
the people being sentenced for crack - which are primarily Black people.
(Crack is cheaper than powder cocaine so it is a testimony to Amerika's
war against the poor when it says that using this, instead of more
expensive drugs, will get you longer prison terms.)
As of May 1998, drug defendants made up 60% of the federal prison
population. This is an increase from 38% in 1986 - the year that
mandatory minimum sentencing laws were passed. Oppressed nationals make
up 64% of the federal prisoner population. This rate has almost doubled
since 1980.
The number of wimmin in federal prisons for drug violations increased a
whopping 421% between 1986 and 1996.
The Federal Puree of Prisons budget increase a draconian 1,400% after
the enactment of the mandatory minimum sentencing in 1986.
The war on drugs (just the domestic costs) amount to ONE TRILLION
dollars over the past 30 years. This is the money spent to convict and
incarcerate drug offenders. However, education and treatment is 7 times
more cost effective than the current fascist prison build up
* * *
WRITE FOR RAIL NOTES!
RAIL is striving to distribute RAIL Notes to prisoners. At this point,
we only have the finances to distribute it to a handful of prisoners.
However, with a higher commitment from prisoners to write, and the
masses in general to fund RN, a higher degree of education and awareness
will be developed on the outside where RAIL can make larger strides in
raising funds. The next issue of RAIL Notes will be out in the beginning
of April. The topic will be on the War on youth, drugs and Gangs. RAIL
is asking prisoners and the masses on the outside to step forward and
write articles on the topic so that they can be printed in RAIL Notes.
The idea is to keep RN topical that many prisoners, anti-imperialist
activists and RAIL comrades can use it to give a detailed example of how
U$ imperialism oppresses people around the globe.
Ideas to cover should be:
* How war on drugs is really a war on oppressed nations
* How Youth (especially oppressed nation youth) are scape-goated for every social
ill in the U$ from smoking-induced lung cancer to adult crime rates
* Something about how ROTC/Army is used to force low-income youth into serving
imperialism
* Stats and articles on youth programs in Adult prison and Juvenile Detention
Centers
* Drugs and who brings 'em in to the U$ (CIA)
* An article on Security Threat Groups in prisons
* Information on how prisoners are singled out as "gang members" and how youth are
attacked on the outside for being gang members
* An article on youth incarceration in Adult Prisons
* An article about how increasing the incarceration rate for youth serves U$
economic interests: ex. How putting kids in adult facilities brings more money for
building more prisons since more prisoners means a "need" for more beds.
* How the juvenile justice system differs from the adult/criminal justice system.
Like what limitations youth have on a "fair" trial, (like no trial by jury), what
other kinds of constitutional "rights" youth receive or are denied, what is the
difference between actual law and how judges, courts and police practice, etc.
(most of this information can be found in prison law libraries).
These are just a few ideas. Please write on any new ideas you come up
with around the topic. For NY prisoners, a good idea would be one
similar to the recent MN article on how New York has equalized the state
budget for both education and prisons. That kind of stuff shows how the
future of youth is treated as useless in the U$ while prisons and
prisoners are considered a good way to make quick cash for the white
working class who build the prisons in upstate NY and the government.
The articles should be pretty short, maybe a half to one full page
depending on your hand writing (if you can type, that is even better!!)
The idea is to encourage prisoners and the outside masses to do
research, while also getting more perspectives and first hand experience
from prisoners. First drafts should be sent in by March 1st so that we
can write back to you with comments. The earlier the better. If you
don't send in your article by March 1st, then we can't guarantee that
you will receive RAIL and MIM's comments before the article in
published.
We hope to see a large response from everyone to help get RAIL Notes
more widely used and distributed. Your help will help raise
revolutionary consciousness around the U$. For some topics, RAIL can
send researched information to you for writing if we are informed early
enough.
