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Poll 'cal Prisone

• 'LUC LEVASSEUR

Mari.on Prison

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~any thanks to: GenerlkEllenn Flndlay, computer W1Z,Unkl~ Punky Grafflx,all you s ubborn (rl~~ds ofpQ11tJcal prlSO!lpr!:) cvprywhLre;and Mom, ~ho bought me thIs swell mlmeo.

--Velvet, for F.O.P.P.

FIrst prIntIng: September- October lQ93.

All ty~os & mlsspe1 lIngs sale r sponslblilty ofFrIends of olltlca1 PrIsoners, Bx 1113Madlson, Wl, ~3704, Emp)re.

---T. E. LawrenceSEVEN PILLARS OF WISDOM

I also think it's a good idea not tohave any fixed notions in one's head. I

, . don't want anyone to tell me where I~~ v. :0 should put my atten~ion first. If down

I, -...J" the line we can try to respect each other. I

.' ~ according to the principle of self-deter-.~ ".' mination then we can begin to move forward."',"\{,',II There are enough of us to go around and~ ". you don't have to do what I do and vice

'-,- versa. I do this and you do that, there

i~ is plenty of room. ---June Jordan

~. ",. ! ~ ~.A.. "'/. --" ~~.r1'f~~~~~

<..: ~:D; .... 1. I,0"'-"''-'1~' ~ "7A ' =- .

~~~~-"~'I~'~'-::~~'~""I' " 'U 'I\.,. l~, . ,.'

/f. j,~.':1 .~'"_, ~ .~b'<, ~ :...-::: _ .-;,. ~",;'Q~~~~~~~

~~ ~ ~

~-=~~ ,~ ~ ,- -:

~,!;:::;j~~~~ .~~J~, ~~~,?, ~'jJjJ'~~~~~~~~~'\' '.0 < ~"":'dI''fi;,-~~~~--~-~"~-~~/ ~

~~.~ "All men dream: but not equally., Those who dream by night in the

dusty recesses of their mindswake in the day to find that itwas vanity: but the dreamers ofthe day are dangerous men, forthey may act their dreams withopen eyes, to make it possible."

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eCOlSSalUI mes soeuro et freres:

MY NAML: IS RAYMO n I.llC LEVASSELIR. I.uc is my peperes

nallle, which I carry with Franco pride. I cOllle from a long line of mill

workers, ;:mcI grew up in the overbearing shadow of textile mills and shoe

factol ics of Sout hWl'stcrJl Maine. My father was horn in the Q.uebec nation.

We callcel oursl'lves French Canadian, or simp.ly French, and thaI'S what

others called us. Our detractors held a diffei'ent perspective and referred

to us as "frogs" or "maudive (godarnn) c;mucks." Those were lighting

words then, and they arc now.

IT'S AI.W/\YS FELT natural for me to refcr lo myself as French

Canadian. To think of myself this way. What it means to me is that my

hlood is Quebl'( ois. We didn't u:e lhe term Franco- I\merican when I was

coming up. Between the lime I left Maine in 10(,4 and my n.:turn in later

years. "I-ranco-American" hecame \ iLkly used. I've always associated

Franco-/\merican with I'rance or cJ!lncel spaghetti. I don't sa~ thisdisparagingly. but simply as a comment of how I wa., taught to sec things.

[ realize that the h) phcnalcd i\merican signifies assimilation into the

American landscape. if not the American drcam. While I do nol deny lhe

reality of assimilation, neither willI deny the mor,tl t);.Inkrurtc~ and

nightm,lrl' that Anwricl is for many of us. I'('rsonally and polilically I

draw the line at comr1elc assimilation into lhe \\'orsl aspects of J O()

fwrn:nt Amcricanism. I\pparently lhe go\'crnJ11CI11 l'llllCUrS, as il holds me

in an isolation \('11 in till' infamous control unit prison at f\..lario!1, Illinoio;.

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i'-IY (,R,\NI ll' Rl N'I . \ 1VI to \'lor 111 the lc"til<.' mill. at U

and J-+ year\. r>1) nll>lhcr ,lnt! l~ttl1l'r weill into thosc mil'" at 1(,. vly lLIrncame ,H 17. 'v\ hen I misreprt:senleu m) ag<: to a mill boss in oruer to work

on d machine making \h( 'h<:e1.'. l-rom t he earliest \ e.lrs J'd watched m\, ..

lamil) and prednmin,lilll) 1-r(,IlC!l Canadian neighbors er,ter ,mu l('me lh('

mill\. Now I followed thl'm i 10 an exc<:edingly Unplc,I\,lI1l c"perience.

I'crhaps ) Oll'\'l' had SLH h an c perience ;lnu don't ha\e to I'd)' on the

imagin,ttion 10 I'onjllrc up Ihe ~\~eat 01 opprcssion. /\\ the lime Oi)

immediale Co-\\'orkl'r \\ere mo'lI) Irl'nt·h-c:..madi.ln. Whilc I had gone

1,1 "her in \I'hool thcll !hl o{ hcr.... none on the shop floor had a good<:0 w·.tt iOll .

... My grandp<.. ents went to \1\'( rk in the textilemills at 13 and 1-+ years...

We workL't! 111 Ihl' :,hell of Ihe old (,000,111 ll1ill~ - ,I m iSl'rahle runaway shop

Ihal ned South. des1roying union... in il.. wake. We h.IJ no union protection

,md " showed. The Pol) ';\.lS lo'v\, {ile wor!-- t.lemanJing. ,II J the cOllt.litions

h,v.ardou.... Specd up 1\01'" used 10 maximi/l' e.·p/nitation. To resisl Ihe

debilil,lIing ('flL'!'t ... of thi... SI1l'<:t.! up my I'n:ndl Canat.li.tn brclhr<:tl

introt.lun:d me (() I he 'l'O\erbi,11 o;ho('- Ie o;abol - \\ itll \~ lli, h we jammed

Ihe mdl'hincs. II \\,1\ Ill: firs! ,Il o( "dhol,lgl', hut a long way from m) last.Our immediate ohjet Ii C 'v\,lo; {o drd\", Ihe line .It hoI'. 111,ln)' shot' heels

\\ l"d hd\ e ttl producl' per hour, be) olld whit h the task lJet arne

inc re<.lsingl) exhaus{i\l' and l.tngef'Ous. We had our dignity, ,md in Ihis

small \\;\). sought t,) uispel the po'v\er that the mills hdt.! ovcr u<;- mills

lilotl Wl' commonh helil'\-ed \\l're (J\\ ned b\ "'-ealth\ /\ng1os from out 01- .. ,

<;laic.

1\ H 'Tl '!{F I ' {hl' milh hcc,tme all the more (,-ightening \~ hen a

l-ranl'o school frient.l. working in d mill ,It ross from mine, gOI his arm

(,lUglll in .t machi'l'_ that cho!--l'd him 10 de.t!h. II<:'d ljuil school 10 earn aIi\ ing and was rl'wJrdet.l 'v\ ilh an early death.

I 1\.1/\('IIINI C/\ '\i kill in the hlink of an c: 1'. but mill work can

takl' decadl'''' {o r.l\dgl' a hot.!: and soul. l\ly pepcre worked in lexlile mills

as long <.1\ J cpuld r<.'memh(·J'. Ill' \\,t~ a man V,,11O lOok pride in carr. ing d

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lunch pail and hringing home a p<l) check. This was a man who used to

hounce me on his "nel'. and ror \\ hom [ had the grealest respect. When

the mill \,,'here he worked c1med and moved south. he was diSt arded like

an old pair or shoe.... i\ \"orker to the depth or his soul, he was without a

joh. It wasn't long hefore his health began to notireahly deteriorate. Ill'.

had difllcult) with his halann:'. his hands became unsteady and his

hreathing Jahored. One day he fell in the t hit ken coor and I went to help

him. [Ic no longer had the strength and steadiness 10 get himself up. I

piCKed him up from where he'd fallen in dirt and excrement. In my arms

he feft as light .IS a child. J\l) memere and I cleaned him ur and rolled hima Bull Durham.., rhings "'-ill get heller" we said. as I disguised my hatred

ror thost: mills that demandl.'<.l so much rrom our II"l·....

.,. but how was [ to strike back at the mills andfactories that exploited us."

TIJElU' WI\<) '\1() improvement. ilvly pepere wa... a World War I

eieran. so we took him to Togus. Arler the VA warehoused him in a

corner, he heggl'd to, onw home, ...0 \\e broughl him h,lCk to die. Within a

year my memere W.tS liVing \" ith my mother because she could no longer

:.lrford to live alone.

RI.I'\f(, ClI· !·RJ<. 'CII (h ADIAN hlood and \-\\)rking class has

imp....cted on 01) vie\\ of tIll' i\meric<U1 political/enmornil' system and

society. r \"as told (I slrike back al Ihose who made e hnir slurs ahout us.

and I did. Still, I ht';.lrd the imulling remarks ahout us as hcing stupid.

lazy anJ papisl dominiltl'<.l. Btll hO\ \-\',IS I to ...trike hac k at the mills and

factories thal exploited u\ - Ix'side... r-reaking the windo\\-s of their

..tbandoned buildings .IS we did ..ts kid~;?

TO MI:, .\ [II I'renrh and class identity were inseparable. I\t 17

years of age I relt those who didn't fall into thi-; category \\-ere the lurk:.'

ones- the exceptions. I wasn'l one of the exceptions. I had to work 10 cal

aoJ the only work wa... in a dead end joh in.1 non- union mill. I\t age 17,, with limited options. I [crt taine and followed ROUle I)') to Boston where I

found work on lhl' \".llerfronl loading docks.

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... I later joined Vietnam Velerans Against theWar. ..

AT VI\RIOUS '1'1 Irs ['ve tried to change or conceal my Frenchidentity. When I was younger I Anglicized my middle J.nd last names. rsidestepped the French language as if it were a trap. I left the Catholicchurch. I sought Protestant girlfriends. I toyed with the illusion ofsomeday crossing over to that fabulously free, white and 21 middle-class,de\'()id of ethnic identity and lowly wages. The assimilationist's dream.

TVI' WORKFD I\S a wage lahorer throughout my life - factories,

farm work, logger, con<;truction, tannery worker and other slints ofendumnce. The remnant.. of the "rench language I retain from my youthincludes "travail" as one of the most oftcn used word,'. Work was centmlto the materia! and <;piritual \\cll being of 01) e"tended family. and no­where have r seen as strong a work ethic as among'a French Canadians.An old worker oncc told me that it takes as much courage to carry a lunchpail to a sweat shop cvery day to feed your kids, as it docs to shoulder aweapon. There's a <;trung current of truth in this little parable. I know ­I've done hoth, When I wasn't working for some nig hossman, J wasworking for the p<:,<,pk, By this, I mean I did community work with\'arious polil ical organiz:l.lio!1s. and I spent 10 years underground banging

away at the worst manifestations of U.S. imperialism,

... and I spent 10 years underground bangingaway at the worst manifestations of U.S.imperialism...

Till ROOTS OI, my political vision and militancy extend deepinto life as a rrench Ccmadian worker. Ilowever, it wa<; a tour of duty inVietnam which led me from the provincial to the radical. In Vietnam,1<)67, I saw intense racism direc\(:d towards the Vietnamese people. which

recalled my own experience with anti- Franm higots and the whitesupremdcy I'd encountered in Boston and throughout the military. I\s Isaw the culture and poverty of the Vietnamese ridiculed, I recalled the

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intolerant WASP's of my youth. I saw the exploitation of their labor andthe desecration of their lives. And charged with carrying out a frighteninglevel of violence, were the poor and working class soldiers ­disproportionately Black. Latino. and some of [-rench Canadianbackgrounds.

I LATER JOINED Vietnam Veterans Against the War. When Ireturned stateside I took my new consciousness and became politicallyactive in Tennessee. I qUickly became involved in opposition to the war,civil rights and a strike by black and white packinghouse workers. Mypolitical activism was a prelude to prison. which is where I found myself ayear after honorable discharge from the army.

MY CONSClOUSNE"S NOR commitment remained at a standstill.In 1970 I met Sacco and Vanzetti. Tbeyappeared to me through the pagesof a book I was reading on. the labor movement in the sweltering heat of asouthern prison cell. I vividly remember reading Vanzetti's last statementto the court before he was sentenced to execution for the crime of being animmigrant radical:

"If it had not been for these thing I might have lived out mylife talking at corners to scorning men.I might have die, unmarked; unknown, a failure.Now we are not a failure. This is our career and our triumph. Neverin our full life could we hope to do such work for tolerance, forjustice, for man's understanding of man as now we do by accident.Our words, our Ihes. our pains - nothing!The taking of our lives -- lives of a good shoemaker and poor fishpeddler -- all!That last moment belongs to us-­that agony is our triumph."

aa. Human rights found a warm reception in mycell. aa

IIERE WA';; TIIF faltering English I'd heard spoken in andaround the mills now presented in an impassioned and principled defense

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of immigrant workers. The lives of a "good shoemaker and poor fishpeddler": J saw increased clarity the laboring class of which I am a part. Ihad worked in a mil! making shoe heels. I had been a farm worker andworked on the Boston Fish Pier. I'd fell the ethnic prejudice against ourpeople - the french Canadians. Then there was my imprisonment, so soonafter Vietnam, and related to my political activism. I found a kindredspirit in those who sacrificed before us and with us.

IT WA..c;, I prison that I studied the great political theoristsand revolutions. Human rights found a warm reception in my cell as didideologies based on revolutionary nationalism and socialism. The life andthought of Malcolm Xwas shared with me by his descendents whooccupied the same cell block. I was encouraged by the activities of theRlack Panther Party and ecstatic with the resurgence of the front deLiberation du Quebec When I defied the prison's Jim Crow segregation, Idid so with the conviction that as the onl. french Canadian prisoner there,I would not side with white supremacy against our black brothers.

WI lEN I RETURNED to Maine in 1971, it was to various jobsmaking concrete blocks, hammering 2x4's, bolting steel, and sweepingfloors. I also attended the University of Maine, was drug crisis coordinatorat Augusta's Rap & Rescue, and worked with organizations such as VietnamVeterans Against the War and Scar. Again I was among the dispossessedand least respened.

... never should we resort to racism topersevere...

WHEN [ REFER to bei.ng underground, I refer to a period ofactivity from late 1974 to late 1984 when I took my political work awayfrom the eyes and ears of the government. During Ulose years I joinedefforts with others in attempting to build a revolutionary resi.stancemovement. We sought to bring to the attention of the American people thehorrendous crimes being committed by their own government andtransnational corporations. We targeted the worst criminals because theyare the ones who hurt the most people. After my capture I was convictedof bombing U.S. military facilities, offices of the South African government,

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and corporations doing busi!1es~with apanheid. Now I am one of over onehundred political prisoners held in thc U.S. gulag.

I WI 100H lEARTEDl.Y SUPPORT the effort of those who nourishand preserve the French Canadian culture and heritage, including ourlanguagc. There are obstacles to be sure. In my current situation, theauthorities havc prohibited me from receiving French languagepublications such as Le FAROG Forum and Rebelles.

NE cR SHOULD \hiE resort to racism to persevere. Il is withanger and sadness I note Quebt.'C's use of the Surete du Quebec to attackthe indigenous Mohawk people who are defending their land againstencroachment by non-native land developers.

... assimilation must not translate to complicityand collaboration...

A SERIOUS CIIALLENGF faced by Franco-Americans is the levelof assimilation we pursue. Too many are seduced by America'smaterialism along with its racist and class arrogancc. It is rotten fruit. It'sclear from the recent uprisings in Los Angeles and other cities that all isnot well in Babylon. America has constituted itself into a criminalenterprise. The magnitude of the crimes is staggering. The U.S. was builton the theft of Indian lands and decimation of Indian people. Mexicanland was stolen. African sweat and blood constructed a substantial portionof this country. America's invasion of Vietnam was an attempt to suppressthat nations right to independence. And what horrible atrocities the U.s.has committed against the peoples of EI Salvador, Nicaragua. Chile.Southern Africa. the Philippines and so many others. It's a bloody legacythat cannot be denied by an arrogant 500 years commemoration ofColumbus and colonization. Franco-American's should actively involvethemselves in the opposition movement to this celebration. Assimilationcarries with it a responsibility of bringing America to task for its worstabuses. Assimilation must not translate to complicity and collaboration.

I WAf) ASKED to provide testimony as to what being Franco­American means to me. and why from this perspective I became a

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mllitant. It began wlrh simple French songs sung by my mother andmemere, and burnished by the anti-French slurs of bigots. I'm proud ofmy blood and pained with an anger that has not subsided. Myaccumulated life experiences have left me hungry for something better. Iyearn for my freedom and a future where every child can live to their f~lI

potential without the scourges of poverty, racism and war. I have chosento fight for that future.

~tw- JAbev~

--~

c :K-Al-\~~c\~,---.!~"".~T~:>~V-

Marion Prison, May, 1992

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8Raymond Luc Levasseur10376/016Box 1000, Marion, Ill.E' I'~o

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MYDON

-.--YSIS

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ON DECEMBER 24th, 1992, George Bush bestowed presidential pardcnson six former henchmen: Caspar Weinburger, ex-War Secretary; Duane Claridge, formerbead of covert CIA wars in Latin America; Alan Fiers~ closely linked to CentralAmerican death squads; Eliot Abrams, whose Goebbels-like spin on U.S. LatinAmerican policy provided cover for the above, and former National Security Advisor(and Iranscam figure) Robert McFarlane.

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ALL OF i1fESE MEN faced criminal charges in the Iran-Contra scandal.The charges consisted largely of perjury and witholding informatioll from Congress aboutillegal arms sales to Iran and a multi-million dollar'arms pipeline to the Contras.

GEORGE BUSH SAYS THAT these men he pardoned l!-re good andhonorable men. True patriots. The realily and moral dilemma is that these men arekiIlers. They were links in a chain of command that turned parts of Central America intograveyards. Somehow they find honor in claiming innocence and being unwilling to seetheir victims as anything other than ideological pawns, without flesh, without blood.

WE ARE TOLD BY the pundi'ts that few 'Americans can understand thecomplexities of the Iran-Contra scandal. Yet, the media's focus on the scandal hasomitted the most serious crimes committed by the Reagan:Bush criminal enterprise: Warcrimes, and crimes against humanity. The "complexities of the Iran-Contra scandal" areno more complex tban firing an M-16. And fire it they did ... Americans are capable ofunderstanding that a person who supplies a weapon to a murderer is an accessory' to amurder. Supply a multi-million dollar diversion of weapons, ammunition. training, and

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other lethal aid to CIA-backed Contras and yOll bear direct responsibility for whatfollows.

ITS NOT COMPLICATED. The U.S. weapons pipeline enabled theContras--offspring of the Somoza dictatorship--to rape, torture, mutilate, and murdertheir way into Nicaragua from sanctuaries in Honduras. The CIA/Contras minedNicaraguan harbors, bombed oil refineries, and attempted to overthrow a sovereigngovernment through a pattern of terror. The terror claimed predominantly civilianvictims. Weinburger, et ai, should have faced more than probation from theJr classmateson the federal bench. They should have faced an international court of law, holding themresponsible for 30,000 deaths in Nicaragua and bOllomless suffering endured by a peoplewho sought no more from their Revolution than true independence and a better life.

REMEMBER, THE IRAN-CONTRA cover-up pertains only to that timeperiod in which the Boland Amendment prohibited direct or indirect aid to the contras.Congress prov~d more than willing to fund extraordinary amounts of lethal aid to thecontras, as long as they approved it.

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NO SUCH COVER-UP WAS NECESSARY regarding U.S. military aid tothe murderous regimes of Guatemala and EI Salvador. U.S. weapons, equipment,training, and advisors flowed through an open pipeline, and with predictable results- •70,000 killed in El Salvador, 100,000 in Guatemala. Part of the pardoned Eliot Abrams'job was to make crimes against humanity digestible to the American public. Lying to thepublic is not a prosecutable offense.

ABRAMS AND HIS PREDECESSORS, in one example, denied theSalvadoran Army's massacre of almost 1,000 civilians at El Mazote, Moraz6n Province,in December of 1981--a massacre that was documented at the time by human rightsorganizations. The documentation established that the Fort Bragg-trained and U.S.­supplied Atlactl Battalion butchered the people of EI Mazote, littering their corpses withM-16 casings. Shortly before Bush issued his pardons, a group of forensic anthropologistsfrom Argentina was still digging up skeletons from one of EI Mazote's mass graves--37 inthis most recent find, mostly children. There was no need to lie about the U.S. role in ElSalvador; the Administration boasted of its involvement and complicity. The duplicity ofits propaganda is merely used to camouflage its worst abuses.

BUSH STATED THAT those pardoned were not motivated by greed or

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personal gain. This is little consolation to the people of Central America who sufferedfor these men's blood-lust and quest for power. The narrow focus on a single dimensionof Iran-Contra doesn't account for the parallel devastation that the Reagan-Bush cliquebrought to bear on Southern Africa, Lebanon, Palestine, Libya, Panama, and G=.~r;,"cia.

Commander-in-ehief Bush led his own assaults on Iraq and Panama. And when ,I.efinger of U.S. imperialism isn't directly on the trigger, it is pulled by one of its clientstates.

BUSH REFERRED TO Weinburger, et al, as true American patriots.Sunshine patriots is more like it. Suited in seats of power, they designed policies thatothers implemented through covert operations and wars.. The result was death, while thequintessential Ugly Americans slumbered in their suburban Washington homes. Oncethey were threatened with investigations that threatened them with more than atarnished image or probation, they began to whine like spoiled children. Fiers whined allthe way into the U.S. Attorney's office and then provided tearful testimony against ClairGeorge--his former boss at the CIA. Undoubtedly, Bush had a further rat in the pack inmind when he pardoned the lot for "their conduct relating to the Iran-Contra affair".Weinbutger was scheduled for trial in January.

BUSH AND THOSE HE PARDONED had established themselves aspredators that feed off the misery of others. They flaunted both domestic andinternational law while using their powerful positions to fill graveyards.

THE PUBUC IS FOREVER fed the fiction that there is equal justiceunder the law for all. It's in the Pledge of Allegiance. What isn't in the Pledge is that theU.S. has the largest and most racist prison system on Earth, and approximately 150political prisoners dispersed throughout the Gulag. Just us poor folks in prison, and moreBlacks imprisoned per capita than another U.S. client state--South Africa.

PRISONERS OF CONSCIENCE, radicals and revolutionaries, are not.pardoned. They are imprisoned for years on end that often turn into decades. Nor arewe in country club facilities reserved for the few imprisoned miscreants of the rulingclass, and the plague of government snitches. We are chained in the bowels of hell .

. CASE IN POINT: Those of us convicted of armed actions against U.S.military facilities and war profiteers. The intent and purpose of our actions was to drawthe American people's attention to horrendous crimes being committed by theirgovernment, in their name, against the people of Central America. It was one of thenumerous courses of action necessary to bring the repression and killing to an end.

WE BROUGHT the El Mazote Massacre to the attention of people yearsbefore the current revelations. The actions pointed out that revolutionary Nicaraguadidn't slaughter its own people as U.S. clients in Central America do, so the U.S.intervened with its own brand of barbarism. Pointed out also was the Sandinistas'

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survival and improvement programs for the poor, again distinguishing it from U.S. clientstates in the region-programs which the U.S. spared no effort to subvert. To theAmerican people, clandestine organizations sent the message: What good is conscienceand moral judgment if we lack the will to take strong action to stop war crimes andcrimes against humanity. To know and do nothing is complicity.

BUSH'S STATED REASON FOR THE PARDONS:

1) His criminal associates were "motivated by patriotism". Yet, any politicalprisoner or defendant who has stolen a pair of shoes can tell you that coUrts do notpermit motivation as defense. The denial of a politically-based defense to those whoresist government and corporate crimes are one aspect of criminalizing resistance. In anyevent, the intern df channelling weapons to Nicaragua was to increase the body count andimplement U.S. policy through hired killers.

2) Weinburger, et ai, "did not' profit from their conduct." But they did. Theyretained government positions throughout the Reagan-Bush years. They secured Third'World lands, resources, and exploitable labor for U.S. banks and multi-nationals--thecapitalist family business. Which directly relates to the third reason: '

3) "Each has a record of long and distinguished service to this country."lndeed--as racketeers in service to an ongoing criminal enterprise called imperialism.Lucrative careers preceded their entry into the Reagan-Bush administration, and thecorporate world awaits their return. As Iran-Contra windbag Oliver North has shown,$50,000 speaker fees await those with the blood of Nicaraguans on their hands.

To know and do nothing is complicity

4) "TIley have already paid a price-in depleted savings, lost careers, andanguished families." Such crap is often used by convicted felons of the ruling class toavoid prison sentences, or sentences to the worst prisons. They assert their constitutionsare too delicate to be placed next to convicts who have stolen goods, sold drugs, orwielded guns. They plead t'o be spared even the shortest prison sentence because theyshelled out a half a million for the best lawyer that can be bought. They've lost theirgovernment jobs, though private corporations will find ways to parlay their corrupt waysinto profit. The family is embarrassed, nbt for what they did, 'but because they gotcaught. Not surprisingly, this type of appeal often succeeds because the judges areclassmates. Bourgeois scum. In this case, the boss of bosses provided insurance.

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BUT IF YOU ARE one of those jailed tluring the l.A. uprising, in RikersIsland for jumping subway turnstiles, or stealing cars in Newark, you got nothing comingbut heartache. In fact. you shuuld consider yourself lucky you aren't being summarilyexecuted. To be poor, Black, Latino, jobless, homeless, underpaid or underfed are notacceptable reasons to stay out of prison. It's your ticket in.

THE POLITICAL PRISONERS who've stood out from the profiteers andcareerists through their commitment to fight oppression and their personal sacrificeshave no savings to deplete or careers to be lost. It is our lives that are at stake. Some,like Angel Rodriguez Cristobal, Ahmed Evans, George Jackson, and Kuwasi Balagoonhave been murdered or killed by medical neglect. Pedro Albizu Campos and AndresFigueroa Cordero suffered years of abuse in Federal prison, only to die of their illnessesshortly after release. Alan Berkman and Sylvia Baraldini fought courageous battlesagainst cancer under the most debilitating conditions. Numerous former members of theBlack Panther Party have been imprisoned for 18, 20, 22 years. Mumia Abu Jamal facesexecution by the state of Pennsylvania.

WE MUST NOT LOSE SIGHT of the real death-dealing crimes ofReagan-Bush-Weinberger et al. And neither should the lives and freedom of politicalprisoners be denied.

THE PUNDITS SAY there's nothing that can be done ahout the pardons-­they're enshrined in the Constitution and irreversible. That's what was said about slavery.There is no statute of limitations on war crimes and crimes against humanity.

WHILE HISTORY'S INDICTMENT continues to huild against ourcommon enemy. a fire needs to be lit to free political prisoners. If the ruling class canprotect iL~ own, we should be able to save lives and gain the freedom of 150 of our own.Whether a blanket amnesty (for which there is ample precedent) or an uncompromisingmovement to stop the State's execution of Mumia Abu Jamal, the time is now.

Marion Prison. January, 1992

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, , TIz~~JZ~2 Go41or [people who] have SOJJlC

Lz)e zn them and some cOllscicnce,some anguish over others ... Gandhiused to say that those who do /lathingare far more guilty than those ZdlO

do violence against tyranny. 1/

-Phillip Berrigan, referringto the OHIO 7.

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mE LOS ANGELES uprising isn't about a free lunch or integrated lunchcounters. It's about those whose lives have been diss'd: disinherited, displaced.discriminated against, and disenfranchised. It's about 500 years of European-exportedgenocide. The entire state of California sits on stolen Indian and Mexican land. There isnothing legitimate about this kind of theft, nor the institutional racism and violentrepression which accompanies it.

mE MOST INTENSE flames of this uprising ha~e burned inpredominantly Black South Central LA. This community is one of many emanating fromthe African Diaspora and its historically developed land base in the Black Belt South.Today's resistance draws its lifeblood from the earliest slave rebellions and is embodiedin the descendants of Malcolm X. There is no "middle of the road" after the MiddlePassage.

mERE ARE COMMON threads between the L.A. uprising and.the

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Palestinian Intifada. Both defy overwhelming superior police and military forces. Bothconstitute dispossessed nations fighting for basic human rights. And at the heart of theirstruggles is the right to national identity and land. The LA uprising has broken throughone of oppression's fundamental realities: its disarming effectiveness at turning its victimsagainst each other instead of their oppressors. The rising has redirected the rage of itsparticipants against the moral bankruptcy of capitalism and white supremacy.

AS OF THIS writing, the battleground has claimed 50 lives in four days,most by police gunfire. In the usual course of events, LA's killing grounds would taketwo weeks to claim as many lives. The significant difference is that instead of passivelywaiting for death to stalk them, the people went on the offensive. Or what might beconsidered a vigorous self-defense, since they were going to die anyway through policeviolence, internecine warfare, alcohol and drug poisoning, and social neglect.

THE UPRISING RESULTED in extensive property damage. While therewas some needless destruction, the people's firebombs were strikingly accurate at rootingout capitalism's ghetto infrastructure. For the most part, people avoided damagingschools, mosques, churches, and housing. Most damaged property was corporate andabsentee-owned. More than one Bank of Amerikka branch was torched into oblivion.These are the businesses that bleed the community with overpriced staples of life, thentake the money and run. 'These are the purveyors of unlimited supplies of alcohol. It waslike pouring salt on leeches a~ the profiteers squirmed in their suburban enclaves. .

WHEN FACED WITH uprising and mass resistance, the government hashistorically responded with military intervention. From one decade and century toanother-Watts, East St. Louis, Chicago, New York--the police and military havecombined to exact a fearful death toll. It was during the 1965 Watts rebellion that DarylGates, the Bull Conner of L.A, drew his first blood as a police commander. From Watts,Black rage swept through Cleveland in '66, and Newark, Detroit. and other cities in 1967.After returning from Viet Nam, I travelled to Detroit and saw the immense destruction.In Viet Nam I'd seen extensive bomb damage from the door of a helicopter; in Detroit, Isaw it from the asphalt. Both areas burned in wars for self-determination. Thedeployment 'of federal troops is predictable, but uprisings that trigger deploymentdemand attention and demonstrate the potential power of the people.

THIS IS NOT a time for apology and accommodation. If I began writing

15

all the names of those murdered and beaten senseless by the police, I'd be writing untilforever. I could nev~r cat~h up w!th t~e reality.. ~ith. each death is a killer cop whowalks free, I know I ve wntten thIs; betore, but It s something I can't forget. It shouldn't.!K forgott~n. I will write but two: Philip Pannel, a Black teenager from Teaneck, NewJersey, who died from a police officer's bullet.as his hands were raised ove> hu,.h.."d.And Ralph Canady, a personal friend, who was murdered in cold blood by police in .Baltimore, Maryland. No civil rights inquiries were initiated into these murders. Thererarely are. It took 50 deaths in L.A. and the U.S. government's embarrassment in thecoun of world opinion to legitimize a federal inquiry into the Rodney King case.

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. .TI-IOUSANDS HAVB BEEN arrested in LA., and the federal and state

governments have formed a special task force to prosecute them. Steal a pair of shoesand go to jail; rip off the livelihood of a people and .ypu're rewarded with profits andhigh office. These prosecutions will be. punitive and vindictive. Years after the Watts .rebellion, some of its panicipants are still in California prisons. Black Nationalist AhmedEvans was sentenced to death following the Cleveland uprising. I first met Ralph Canadyafter he'd been railroaded to prison in the wake of the 1968 rebellion in Nashville'sBlack community. ColQnial rebellions strike fear in the bowels of American capitalism,and it'll spare no effort to imprison the most rebellious. Still in prison, some for decades,are those women and men that represent their people's aspirations to be fre.e: LeonardPeltier, Geronimo Pratt, Mumia·Abu·lamal, Gary Tyler, Alejandrina Torres, AbdulHaCJ.q, and many others. ~ Mandela put i.t--there's no easy way to walk to freedom.

tnore prisons in a country•

already choking with· them.,_ • •THE FEDERAL DEPLOYMENT in L.A. includes elements of the U.S.

Marshall's Service, who made their notorious mark in history tracking·.fugitive slaves, theracist dogs of the Border Patrol, and the Bureau of Prisons. The presence of the latter isa further in4ication of what lies in store for the rebellious poor: more prisons in acountry that's already choking with ,them. The U.S. has more steel cages than any countryon earth, and imprisons more Blacks per capita than South Mrica. I~ in thiscompressed nightmare of a gulag. Each year .of my imprisonment I've endured the exilewith those from iUIierikkka's barrios and ghettos, including South Central and East LA.There's no den~ing. this apartheid ,reality or the necessity to break its chains.

.NAT TURNER SAID that the struggle. for freedom was not a war for

robbery or to satisfy passions. Opportunists exist everywhere, but most ot'. that unleashedpower of mass resistance did not act with criminal intent. They are pursuing their verysurvival. Their intent is to demand respect and gain some !11easure of control over their

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.lives and community. Wh.at criminal intent exists is primarily represented by policeviolence and a system which fosters and protects the real criminals: that rotten elemen~

that lives in bourgeois splendor derived from exploiting and defrauding societies' mostvulnerable. Their rapacity is exceeded only by their ruthlessness and disregard for thevalue of human life. The rule of class and white supremacy ensures that they operatewith impunity.

NO DOUBT THE system will attempt some band-aid application toproblems reflected in the uprising. This has been attempted before, but hasn't worked.That's one of the messages from the streets-- government money, with all its bureaucraticstrings, may alleviate some conditions in the short term, but it cannot deal with the basiccauses that underlie a people'~ subjugation. There's only one serious context in which todiscuss money, and that is reparations. Billions of dollars in reparations. Millions of acresof land in reparations. However, a government and a general population that applaudsthe agonizing death of Iraqi children caused by U.S. bombing raids will not seriouslyconsider reparations simply to quell the impact of 50 deaths and property destruction inLA

• THE SITUATION IS desperate but nothopeless. To rise from ashes and bondage requires a well­organized and militant resistance that's willing and preparedto take it to the limit. For arnerikka's most oppressed, thereis no viable alternative to revolutionary nationalism andsocialism.

THERE WAS WIDESPREAD participation byMexicans in the LA uprising, though the media hasmanipulated coverage to keep tbem voiceless. Theirinvolvement is understandable given the conditions ofsurvival and the fact the amerika occupies their land. LosAngeles was forcibly taken from the Mexicans in 1846.

1

THERE WAS MARGINAL participation byyoung whites in LA., as well as in actions in other cities. This.is e;J.r.Duraging, but it is not enough. Historically, white peopleh3~'~ laid claim to privilege based on race. There are M"r

e;'·-~~tions, but they're not ther:)-e.White power rules in amerika, as is clearly evident in the presidency, congress, supremecourt, and corporate boardrooms. You can see it in the faces of the swine wearing theb".~.'~e of the LAPD. You see it in celebrations of Columbus. Tr.erc are those thate"""0~3ce t!l~ racist idedogy that permeates this country, others are simply compi:>centVi;,en confronted with its effects. Both are part of the problem.

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F<Jl{ TIII·.I'RI.I)()1\11NI\'\;TI. whilL' I dt and "·,'adel grouping of..progressive...... Ihere CXi'IS a hl'i.~II!clI<:d c·;tli 10 a<:li'lii. \Vher,' arc lhe millions whoclealed a vibrant anli-apartheid 1Il0VeIlH;Il!') Whe'l e aI',' all Ihose Ihal provided puliticalsupport and malerial aid to "Jicaragua ami 1'1 Salvador') Wliere ;tre the ncar millionstrong lhat attended the re<:enl pro-eh"ic..: delllollsiration in W;t,hinglOn? I\nd where inhell i, organized lahor? It's tim<: for thi ... Cllllspiracy of siknce to <:nd.

FOR POOR AND wurking-rla ..., while,. the dlOicl' i, dear: collahoratillnwith a YSlem based on white supr,'macy. Ill' comhatting il. When John I3rown was askedwhy he foug.ht to end slavcry, he replied "J aCI from principle. il.1v ohjective is 10 restorehuman rights." Wh('n Malcolm X W'LS a,ked whal while' who GU,' ahoo! lJIack p('oples'strut:,glc... eould do (() ,upport thcm. he r<:plied "Do a, John Brown did." It's time tll getdown to dismantling the apartheid Ie 'ac'Y' of slavery. It\ time to urganize a 20th centuryaholition movement. and llJ provide aid anu assi,t,uKe to freeuom fighters. ll's waybeyond Ihe time of no rl'lurn.

\1;ulon I'ri"ln. May. 1'11l?

,

rRO 1 1'i7l) Ihnn.gh IIJH.J. the Sam Melvilk-Johnslln Ja<:kson Unit and theUnited Freedom Front called lor Ihe relea,c 01 political prisoners and POW's from U.S.pri';on". Thi' call. accenlllakd through lhe ll,e of e-,pln,ivcs. was integrated with otheris,lle' ~lIch as independent:(: fnr Plicr () Rico, an end 0 apartheid, and support forliheration 111()VC'lI1cnl. in Ccntral .'\1I1<:IIC;I

tn 19K'i, the first of many Irials h<:gan fm seven long time activists and

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revolutillnaries. Collectively known as the Uhio 7. the Ilrst group trial stemmed fTomresistance actions attributed 10 the UPI', including the bombings of U.S. militaryfacilities. This trial resulted in numerous cunvictions. Subsequcntly, l{ people wereindicted on Sedition and RICO (Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organi7~tlion) chargescoming out of SMJJ/UFF actions. This case resulted in the longest seditiun trial in U.S.history and acquittals for those who remained in the case. I was a defcndant in bothcases as was Richard Williams and Thomas Manning.

BETWEEN thc t:arlier UFF trial and the Sedition case, therc was a NewJersey slate trial in which Tom and Richard were tried for the j <ii{ t shooting death of astate trooper. In very t:ompe!ling and unequivocal testimony, TOll! described how he hadshot the trooper in self-defense after the trooper tried to kill him with his .357 Magnum.During tbe court procee<lings it was determined that the trooper had fired a minimum of6 shot; carried an unregistered. unlicensed "drop gun" concealcd on his person, and waspreviously involved in shooting incidcnts.

TOM testified that Richard Williams was not prescnt at the shooting.

i\T trial's conclusion, Tom Manning was convicted of felony murder. Thejury failed to reach a verdict on Richard. with the majority for acquillal. This led to asecond trial, a retrial, which began 5 years later on September 30th, 1991, and endedwith Richard's conviction in December.

i\ year earlier, December 7-10,1990, a Special Tribunal on the violation ofthe human rights of political priqmcrs/POW's in U.S. prisons and jails was held in NewYork City. This event was convened by l{l{ sponsoring and endorsing organizations,including free00tn Now!. a coalition of organizations and individuals pledged to supportpolitical prisoners. Ilundreds of ~,ctivislS allendcd the event. Tbe Tribunal provided anopportunity and forum to cx;lmine tbe polilical claims and conditions of over onehundreu political prisoners. Examination was also given to government claims that theseprisoners are simply tem,rists and criminals.

THE Tribunal drew numerous conclusions based on Ihe evidence. Amongthese findings: U.S. prisons hold substantial numbcrs of political prisoner/POW's,including "white nl>rth umerican opponents nf U.S. governmt:nt policies." The Tribunalthen issued the following call to actions--"It is of critical importance that theinternational human rights community as well as all freedom loving people to hring

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worldwide "ll,'lliion to the plight of U.S. political prisoners."

I J( >W is it that one year after (he Trihunal's findings, the New Jersey trialof Richard William, elicited no moral or political support frolll those who organized,sponsored. enJorsl.'d and allcnueu this C\'ent'! Or from the organi,ations and individualsaffiliated with Frecuolll Now!'! How diu circumstances and altitudes evolve to the pointof adding insult to injury hy abanuoning Richaru Williams to a relcntless attack by theState?

IT has heen my position, shared by some of my comrades, tbat we do notdistance ourselves politically from actions claimed by the SMJJ!UfF. for example, wedo not deny bomhing the offices of the South African government in 1982, or thedestruction of military facilities. We think they were necessary anu righteous actionsdesigned to draw the attention of the American people to crimcs being committed bytheir own government.

TillS has had repercus'ion.' in our ability to bullu support among theorganized Left and oth('r... Many acli"i ts consiuer the SMJJ!U FF actions "diny" becausethey involveu lhe usc or Ihreat of vioknce. including confrontations with the police.These activists won't even consider \'Xtending sUppOrl to those who do not establish their •"innocence" or repuuiale armed resistance. Trying to gain their favor resembles anappearance hefore a parol<' board.

AT his recent trial, Richard Williams maintained his innocence throughoutthe circumstantial case against him, yet political and moral support did not materialize.With the exception of a few inuividuals who braved the elements and police intimidation,the Left virtually bovcolted the trial. The alternative press, with the exception of theCanadian Left, did not devote so l11uch as a single colul11n inch 10 the trial. Events werenot organized or shared which would draw attention to Ollr comrade's plight. One of thefew bright spots in the midst of this way\\ard st:llllpede was defen<;e attorney LynneStewart, who put forward a valiam elT(lfl.

WHY the white out? Despite the rhetoric of ollr detractors, the issue is notone of "guilt" or "innocence", If it were. the courtroom would have becn filled withsupporters from that nearby hotbed of radicalism, 'ew York City. J\S it was, thecourtroom was filled with state cops making their own political statement. The real dealwith th(lse that renounce u~ and retreat frum trials and prison balliegrounds is that we ,

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are seen as anI i-imperialists with guns. Gnns wcrc uscd to defcnd ourselves; guns 10

confronl the enemy. guns that speak for our own libcration and provide support toothers. With no apologies.

SELF DEFENSE was clearly established in the New Jersey case. However,our critics' convoluted logic turns the issue around to a condemnation: What were wedoing with guns to begin with! The soft parI of the Left filed a superseding indiclmentbehind that of the State, implicating us as terrorists and criminals. The guns, our lack ofadherence to a particular party line, our radical ideas (e.g. the liberation of oppressednations within the borders of the U.S. Empire) are used by others to label the Ohio 7 asrenegade workers unworthy of support.

THERE are those who've just begun to grasp the necessary understandingand courage to denounce the inherent injustice of 20 year old cases involving our BlackPanther Party and I31aek Liberation Army comrades, and others. Yel they don't lift afinger to help someone on trial now. Anyone who has been chewed up in this so-called"criminal justice" system will tell you support is mmt effective in the trial stage.Convictions are extremely difficult to get reversed, and early support lays the foundationfor protracted support if necessary. A New York judge put it succinctly when he statedthe government has an interest in the finality of judgments. Final--as in bury them alive-­or, in the case of Mumia Abu Jamal, execute as soon as convenient.

_ iii:

MUCH of the North American Left suffersfrom myopia on this issue of political prisoners. It affectstheir value judgments. They place our value at nil. They seeno relat.ion~hip or kindred spirit betweenthose who function clandestinely or outside the bounds of the Empire's law, and thecombatants, bombmakers, expropriators. armorers. courtiers, and propagandists of otheranti-imperialist struggles. Struggles represented by the FMLN, the FSLN, Umkhonto weSizwe. the PLA of the Philippines, ete. They merit aumiration and respect. We getostracized and disrespect.

WHEN Mandela toured the U.S. after his release from prison, I watchedwith pride as millions turned out to welcome him. elson Mandela symbolizes anti­apartheid resistanee and the defiant spirit of political prisoners. Most Left organizationsexpressed enthusiastic support for Mandela--and appreciation for his sacrifice on behalfof others. It was a very special moment when Mandela spoke in Harlem. Adding to itssignificance was Mandela sharing the stage and place of honor with Black Pallllter Panyleader Dhoruba Bin Wahad, and former Puerto Rican Nationalist Prisoners of War.Liberal and conservative politicians opposed their presence on stage. It is then with some

21

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irony that so many Left organizations, year after year, refused to acknowledge thepolitical persecution of these comrades. Curious, that many didn't recognize theconnection between the fight against white supremacy in Amerikka. Disturbing, that atno time prior, during, or after did anyone acknowledge the reality of U.S. politicalprisoners in prison for years, and still in prison today, for anti-apartheid actions.

THE consistency with which the Left ignores political prisoners can beseen through the experiences of soldiers that refused to erve in the Gulf War. Theseworking class women and men took the risks, bad discharges, and imprisonment. Fortheir commitment and sacrifice, they received scant support from the various antiwargroups and coalitions, with the major exceptions of Citizen Soldier, the War Resisters'League, and the anti-imperialist segment of Viet Nam Veterans Against the War.

EXCEPTIONAL also is the Puerto Rican Independence Movement, andthe singular example of Leonard Peltier (also, the particular effort formed around IRAprisoner Joe Doherty), They have made progress with integrating the lives of theprisoners with other community and political issues.

HOWEVER, few prisoners, including anti-imperialist prisoners, receiveorganizational support. The demise of FreedomNow! from competing agendas, personal squabbling, and myriad other self-inducedproblems undermined the good intentions and hard work of a few. It dashed the hopesof scores of political prisoners, -long ago forgotten. This is a continuation of a decades­old legacy which relegates politicalprisoners to the status of irritant and minor humanitarian consideration.

THE prisoners want and need outside support. We need it to remainvisible and as a vehicle for activism; as a measure of physical protection and to secureour freedom. Our lifeline is perilously weak.

,I

THE State put a lot of muscle and resources into prosecuting RichardWilliams, Every day, state police ringed the courthouse, patrolled the building andoccupied the courtroom. This was more than a symbolic demonstration--it was a strategydesigned to use the power of the State to take a man's life. The dichotomy was strik.ing:a frenzied police power bent on exacting their pound of flesh, and the wilted response ofthe Left. There was the depth, character, and altitude of each in the context of a politicaltrial.

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NEITHER my comrades nor I have asked for awards, promotions, orpensions. If that's what I wanted, I would have re-enlisted with the U.S. Army ratherthan join with the unconventional forces. Some will say I have an axe to grind.

"My purpose is to stir the conscienceand inflame the passions ...."

No doubt. I began to sharpen my axe under the war skies of Viet Nam. 25 years ago. I'vecontinued to hone its edge as my own life was rubbed raw with oppression. With me, thepolitical IS personal.

THIS is not a criticism of the entire Left. Most of the Left doesn't evenknow we exist. For those who have made a difference in our lives--you know who you

, are. Neither is it meant to be a comprehensive analysis. My purpose is to stir theconscience and inflame the passions; to draw attention to the inherent weakness ofpolitical organizations and movements that cut and rUIl at the first sign of a courtroomconfrontation. ALL progressive and revolutionary movements have their activists andseditious conspirators. Some of us are imprisoned for our commitment. Do you see us aspart of your community, or as casualties of a war you'd just as soon forget? Do you seeus at all? For after all is said and done, the women and men locked down for theirpolitical beliefs, intent, and actions are the United States' political prisoners.

January, 1992

I PROFANE EXISTENCE· P.O.BOX 8722 I• MINNEAPOLIS, MN 55408 • U.S.A. •

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THE TRIALSTATEMENTOF RAY LUCLEVASSEUR

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UNTILALL ARE

FREE~~

Until All Are Free The Trial Statement ofRay Luc LevesseurAnack International· $2.85The trial slalemen! of American anti-imperioalist prisonsr Ray Luc LsvassBur who (9·ceived a 45 yBar sentence for conspiring tooverthrow the U.S. Governmsnt. A power­blly 3nd moving statement.

fromAvailable

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GRELTI:"JG, TO Y{)U on International Women's Day' I was pleased tore<xlvc' your kuer :.\I1d appn:eJ:l1c' the kind worlk It \V:L~ wry nice ur you to write. II was alsoeneol/raging tl) hear the Berksh;r' porulll Lontinuc's lln. Ewry progressive voict: is impOitanl.

r'li{ :'llRE THE RESPECIED 1''\ 1': ELI T, at the Forum will address a range01 human nghts issues 'nlrough my own tii<' experienl'cs, I havc COlllc' to pbce supreme.. alth: on human righLs and ha 'e co. 1 lIillt'd a !!lllld d,'al or my life to Ihe struggk for socialiu~lic". My work h"s nhlst ,It,,[, t:tk ,,,·th., f,lI"lll nrgani~1"r or cllm":'l""!. I don't con.~idL'1mvself mut:h 01 a writt:r

I WOIILD. "OWl' VI'! like' III I"ke thi 0ppllnumty III shIm' with you S(lIlIl'

llhservations :thou! the contn'l unit pri"", al Marion, Illinois. I have moniturt:d conditionshen: f,)r manyy,,:tr' "nd they h,,\'(~ fllllllllp\)li,,'t.i my Jill- sinct: \hey amved, shoftly after theconclusion or th" SeditIOn trial Therc"s a stmy here that nL'l'ds tu he told.

lvlARION rs ,\ CO T({{)L L'NIT PRISO '. h~ fl:gill1ell is enlorced throughphysical hrutality, deprivation. and p~ychol()gKal tonure. I do nOI llv"rstalc the situation andIhefe arc thllus:ll1ds or pages or t/O\:unwll1l'd c'vidL'm'e whit:h allcsl.s 10 Ihe surr<.:ring and righL<Vi'llalions in Mallon

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,CONTROL UNIT POLICIES are based un isolatioh,.separation, and

controlled movement. Since the 1983 guard riol in which hundreds of prisoners werebrutalized, Marion has been "locked down". We are confined to solitary cells, 22 1/2 aday. If I stand at the bars of my cell, I can see approximately 50 feet down-range--toanother wall.

THERE EXISTS a total separation of cell blocks. Prisoners in one cellblock have no contact with prisoners in the other area. Puerto Rican patriot Oscar L6pezRivera is 200 feet from me but I never see him.

EACH HALF of a cell block has two tiers of cells. But prisoners on onetier are never let out of their cells with prisoners from the other tier. Our primary"recreation" is to be let out onto the corridor in front of our cells for 1 1/2 hours withnothing to avail ourselves of. There is no exercise equipment, no work for the laborer,nothing to engage the inteHect. The maximum number of prisoners allowed out of theircells at one time is 9, but usually does not· exceed 7-8. Weather permitting, we areallowed outside into a yard, once a week, for 2 hours. The perimeter of Marion makesthe Berlin Wall look like a minor obstacle.

SOCIALIZING among prisoners hasbeen effectively barred.

INTEGRAL TO MARION'S regimen isthe use of "restraints." Guards never get near aprisoner unless separated by a barrier or the prisoneris in restraints, either handcuffed behind the back orin handcuffs and leg irons. A prisoner does not moveanywhere in this prison unless he is in restraints, evenif the move is 100 feet to the guards' office or a mere30 feet to another cell. Here's how it works: Guardswill approach your ceH door. You must turn awayfrom them and back up to the door, extending yourarms behind you and through an opening in the door.Handcuffs are placed on your wrists. The door is thenopened and a guard immediately grahs you by the "chain links of the handcuffs. (Through the entirecourse of the movement, and until you are on theother side of a barrier, he will not let go.) You backout of the cell. Your back must always be towards the guard. You are pat searched,From that moment on, you move and stop on command. The procedure is reversed andrepeated at each destination and upon return to your cell. When you are returned toyour cell, yOll are frequently pat searched.

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ALL GUARDS CARRY 3-foot clubs with steel balls on each end. Thesteel allows them to separate your ribs and calise internal injuries without breaking bone.The c1uh-wielding guards are an omnipresent reminder that yOll will be beaten senselessunless you go along with the program.

WHEN CLUBS FAIL to do the job, prisoners have been chained toconcrete slabs (for days on end!) to contemplate their rebelliousness. Prisoners have alsobeen forcibly injected with drugs. Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court approved theforcible use of psychotropic drugs on prisoners without their consent or due processprotection. This merely put a high-level stamp of approval on what has been an ongoingpractice in prisons. While in the segregation unit at MCC/New York 1 personallywitnessed several prisoners forcibly strapped into theit bunks and injected withtranquilizers.

ADDING TO THE VIOLENCE and humiliation directed towards theMarion prisoners is the selective use of "anal probes". This has been likened by prisonersto anal rape. Guards will attack a prisoner in restraints, remove his clothes, and one ofthem will shove their fingers in the prisoner's anus.

HEALTH CARE is a major grievance of the prisoners, and topping thiscategory is the toxic water supply from which we are forced to drink. Marion draws itswater from Crab Orchard lake, an area which has one of the most serious PCB toxicwaste problems in the country. The lake itself has been designated to receive EPA

,Superfund cleanup money. In addition to PCB toxins, it has been determined that thearea also contains other hazardous wastes, such as lead and cadmium. At one time, thislake was the backup source of drinking water for the town 'of Marion until disclosure ofthe contamination led the town to seek an alternative source. Although a class action suithas been filed on behalf of the prisoners. the bureau of prisons has refused to allow alawyer for the prisoners a sample for testing. The men here have reported a variety ofhealth problems, including rashes and subcutaneous lumps, hut are denied healthconsultations and treatment. This is one of the many human rights violations which takeplace at Marion every day.

NONE OF THE MARION BROTHERS believes the courts imposed adeath sentence on us.

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IN THE SPRING OF 1989, there was an outbreak of intestinal parasites,which can be contracted by ingestion of fecally-contaminated water. The' bureau ofprisons has said it cannot determine the source of the outbreak.

IN THE FALL OF 1989, over 100 prisoners became violently ill with whatthey suspected was food poisoning. Prison medical workers made no attempt to diagnoseor treat the problem.

HEALTH CARE AT MARION is in the same realm as due process foralleged disciplinary infractions. It exists 'only for whatever purposes the administrationwants it to serve.

EVERY DAY the Marion Brothers must deal with intense isolation andthe ongoing psychological assaults against us. There is no human touch in marion andthe prison makes no concession to the human spirit. Marion exists to break the will ofprisoners who refuse to grovel at the feet of our self-anointed maSters.

MARION IS the only federal prison in the country which does not allowcontact visits. Visitors are separated from prisoners by a plexiglass barrier and mustspeak through monitored phone receivers. As long as I am here, I will never be allowedto touch my children. Just how long you remain in Marion is entirely up to the discretionof the bureau of prisons. Some men have been here 12 years.

WE MUST EAT and defecate in our cells. Unlike other prisons, the cellshere have been stripped of their furnishings. In their place is a concrete block on whichhas been placed a plastic mattress. It has four iron rings embedded in it to allow theguards to chain, naked and spreadeagled, those wlio arouse their ire. Three smallconcrete slabs protruding from the wall round out 'the decor. In a tribute to 20th centurypenology, Marion is the only federal prison which insta'lIs a small television in each cell.Its purpose is to pacify and keep the demons of insanity at bay. The bureau of prisonsdoesn't necessarily want to drive the prisoners insane. It wants them to submit.

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how much of our living, breathinghumanity will be ground into dust.

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IN KEEPING with the racist nature of the prison ystem, two-thirds ofMarion prisoners are Third World--Black, Latino, Native American. The overwhelmingmajority of the guards are white.

THERE ARE no religious services and the chapel stands idle.

I SAID there was no work in Marion and for the large majority of us thatis true. However, there is one exception. Before a prisoner can be transferred to anotherprison, he must prove he is worthy by some ambiguous standard set down byadministrators. This includes a year's stay in the "pre-transfer" cell block (B unit), inwhich you are assigned a production job. What you produce is materiel (wire and cable)for the United States military.

MARION IS ruE MOST maximum security prison in the United States. Itis the government's disciplinary prison and holds both federal and state prisoners. Sinceits inception a. a control unit prison, many inside organizers and political prisoners havebeen transferred here. I have never been in a federal prison hefore, yet I was sent toMarion directly from court following my acquittal of seditious conspiracy. I wa~ sent herebecause of my political beliefs, and what the government calls my political associations.Yet the Department of Justice continues to propagate the lie that only the most seriousof disciplinary violations gets a prisoner transferred to Marion. The bureau of prisonscan at any time and without justifiable cause change a prisoner's security classification tocover their transfer to Marion.

MARION HAS AN EVIL REPUTATION. It is used to intimidate tens ofthousands of other prisoners. any of whom could be transferred here at a moment'snotice. The bureau of prisonJi has deliberately created a place of real. suffering, whichsuffocates both mind and hody. It is designed to create prisoners who are the walkingwounded, to strike fear in any or all who would contemplate resistance to the system.

ONE OF THE MANY WARDENS who have served a tour of duty atMarion publically stated, "the purpose of Marion is to control revolutionary attitudes inthe prison system and society at large." Recalcitrant prisoners, organizers, rightsadvocates, and political prisoners make good test suhjects according to Marion policy. Itis our belief systems that come under attack from Marion's brainwashing schemes ("toforce <1,' person to reject old beliefs and accept new ones·by suhjecting them to greatmental pressure").

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL, IN A DEPARTURE from its usual lackof interest in the U.S. prison system, has condemned Marion for violating many of theUnited Nations' Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners. The SeventhCircuit Court of Appeals has described conditions at Marion as "sordid, horrible, andghastly." A Congressional subcommittee has released reports on human rights violationsat Marion. But after all is said, nothing is done to change life at Marion. every day, the

28

•

•

assault on our humanity continues.

OUR OPPRESSORS try to justify their policies by categorizing the MarionBrothers as "the worst of the worst", as if we were just so much human garbage. Thispropaganda ploy has been used for as long as any of us can remember. I saw it usedduring the Viet Nam War. It was a thinly-veiled cover to justify the government's owncriminal actions, that they may continue unfettered with their exploitation and atrocities.

UNLIKE THE CAMPAIGN to close the Lexington Control Unit forWomen, the struggle of the Marion Brothers has received only marginal support amongprogressive people. Though the U.S. prison population has more than doubled since theearly '70's, with the number of Third World prisoners' reaching alarming proportions,most of the Left ignores the issue. They fail to see prisons and the police as the States'first line of defense in the da~s war.

THE ISSUE OF POLITICAL PRISONERS has long since ceased to be animportant issue in this country. Somehow, those of us imprisoned and mistreated becauseof our political commitment, do not merit enough respect from progressives to gain theirsupport and protection. We are attacked by the government and ignored by those who

• should be our natural allies. If such a view continues to propagate--along with controlunits themselves--human rights abuses in U.S. prisons and in other aspects of our societywill remain unchallenged on the altar of U.S. exceptional ism.

BETTY, I recently read a book by STARHAWK, a witch and healer. Shesays: "No matter how strong we become, how many inner demons we conquer, how manyinsights we gain, we are ultimately confirming our own isolation unless our journey isgrounded in a relationship with living, breathing human beings."

CONDITrONS AT MARION are calculated to sever the relationships wehave with our loved ones, people from our communities, and political movements.Amnesty International's report on Marion stated that policies here are designed to breakthe defiant spirit and .alter the behavior of prisoners. It goes on to say that we arecontinually subjected to sensory and psychological deprivation, and stripped of ourindividual identities in a process called "mortification and depersonalization."

STARHAWK's view is an affirmation of life and belief in human potential.Marion is a negation of this. Conditions here force us into an intense fight for survival,

29

but how much of our living, breathing hllmanity will be glOlInd inlo dllSt within isolationcells and by the very slruggle it takes to survive these conditiuns'! Time will tell, but atthe moment, the prognosis doesn't look gooel.

•

In Solidarity,

10376/016United State PenitentiaryMarion, Illinois 62959

March 8, 1990

HauliIlg Up the MorningIzando la Manana

writings & art by polit.ical prisoners& prisoners of v\jar in the U.S.

These voices arc our con.science-words of vision. sHcnClh) and courage. Read them andlisten to the """cnee or. reality ane a longing [hat belong to us all. - Marg:uc( Randall

A powerfully moving, thought-provokinb tcstament [Q the strength of the human spirit andmind. Pride. sinccriry, openness. and unshakeable revolutionary will ... a vital hcri13gc th:umust Ix- shared with our people and beyond a.s an awakcning vehide. - Juan SmehC7.

Edited by Tim Blunk.Raymond Luc Levasseurand the editors of Jacobin BooksIntroduc1ion by Assata ShakurPrefatory note by William Kunstleravailoble tor S15.9501 your locol bookstoreor tram Red Seo Press. 15 Industry Couri. Trenton. NJ 08638

30

•

IN AUGUST 1971, [ was working a menial job, my hands rough and hewnfrom lugging thousands of concrete blocks. J was on parole at the time, ending a 5 to 7year sentence for selling an undercover cop a few joints. First offence. But since myreturn from Viet Nam, I'd heen organizing against the war--effectively. That was a fargreater crime than the joints.

ON AUGUST 21st, I heard the news that the brother I knew as ComradeGeorge had been murdered in the prison yard of San Quentin. The first shot from aguard's rifle had hit George in the leg, and dropped him to his knees. The second shotwas put through his skull and killed him. The man I admired most in thc world wasdead.

I WAS STILL CONSUMED with grief and rage when, three weeks later,New York State Police stormed Attica Prison and systematically murdered 29 prisonersin what became known as the Attica Rebellion and Massacre. Like everywhere else,most of the prisoners were Black or Latino.

GEORGE JACKSON was a new breed of political prisoner. At the time ofhis death, he had already spent half of his life in prison for a $70 robbery. Imprisoned ona criminal charge, George proceeded to change his life. and the lives of others. Hebecame politically conscious, a skilled org:lI1izer and member of I he f31ack Panther Party.He received international acclaim with the publication of his first book SoledadBrother:The Prison Writings of George Jackson, which contained an introduction by Frenchauthor Jean Genet.

SOLEDAD BROTHER became a fundamental writing of Black militancy.George's writing projected the spirit of Black people who have experienced centuries ofracism, economic exploitation, and violent repression.

31

TIllS Ill)( lK wa, followed by a second. Jilooel ill Illy Eye. with its focus onarmed resistance l<l the systemi.... violcnee of the Slatc. Ilc matle it cI .ar thaI if there arcto he funer-als, thcy will be un both sides.

1'1 IE EXECUTION WARRANT for George came down the moment hisinfluence as a leader in the l3lack Liberation struggle was felt beyond the confines of hispi isun cdl. Wherevcr and whenevQr Black women and men begin to assert effectiveleadersflip, they become targets of ass"ssination or imprisonment. From the fallenleaders of slave revolts to the murders of Metlgar Evcrs, Malcolm X, Marlin Luther KingJr., Fred II:llnpton, and d07ens of I3l:Jck Palllhcrs, this cnul1lry has repeatedlydemo/l:trated it will not tolerate a movcment thaI fights for the human righls andaspir:lllOns of I1lack people

Wherever and whenever Black women and men begin to assert effectiveleadership, they become targets of assassination or imprisonment. ...

LISTEN TO Tl IE WORDS of Comrade George: "Born to a prematuretleath. a menial, subsistence-wage worker, odd-job man. the cleaner, the caught, the manunder hatches. without oail--lhat's me, the colonial viclim. Anyone who passed the civilservice examination yesterda ' call kill me today. with clllnplete ir.-nnunity. I've lived withrepression every momCI)! o[ my lifc, a repressioll so formidabll' that any movement unmy part can only bring relief, the respitc of a small 'ictnry ur the release of death. Inewry sen,c of the term. in t'very sensc that's real. I'm a slave to and of property."

TilE WORDS AND PERSPECTIVE arc Gcorge Jackson's hut clearly wehave seen a similar vein in "'!alcolm X and Nel"on Mand 'Ia. Mandela ha: often pointed10 the role of prison" in South Africa and lhe e"istcnce of political prisoners. In 1971.George recognized lhat certain colonial conditilJlls existed within the horders of theUnited States.

l.lSrEN TO THE WORDS of Gcorge Jackson: "The hypocrisy ofAmerikan fascism forces it to conceal ils attacks on political off 'ndcrs by the legal fictionof conspiracy laws and highly sophisticated frameups. IPcopleJ .. _ must understand thetrue function (If prisons. Why do they exist in such large numbcrs'? What is the realunderlying economic motive of crime and the official definitions of lypes of offender.and viclinls?

•

•

IN 1990, the United States has more Blacks imprisoned, per capita, thanSouth Africa. There are also well over 100 political prisoners.

MANDELA POINTS TO TIlE LEADING ROLE of Black people inSouth Africa. George Jackson wrote: 'The principal reservoir 0 revolutionary potentialin Amerika lies in wait inside the Black colony."

GEORGE RECOG IZED that Black people in the U.S. are subjected toa form of apartheid. Since ]971, the prison system has more than doubled--satellitecamps to the ghettos and projects that exist in most urban areas. One fourth of Blackmen in their 20's are in prison, on parole, or probation. People in Harlem have a shorterlife expectancy than the people of impoverished Bangladesh. In New York, AIDS is theprimary cause of death among Black women under 40: the infant mortality rate amongBlack babies is nothing short of criminal; the cold-blooded murders of Black people bykiller cops has replaced the lynch rope.

I HAVE WATCHED with much ili'terest the wat,n and exuberantreception extended to Mandela during his recent tour of the country. People say we needa hero in these difficult times. Mandela is certainly an in. piration--a person of greatcourage and principle. He told the American people we neeSI tq deal with our owninte'rnal affairs and reiterated the A C's position that they are ()ppused to whitesupremacy wherever it raises its ugly head. He reminded us of the sacrifices andcommitment of our own Nat Turner, John Brown. Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, and so manyothers.....

AND I AM REMINDED of Comrade George who made the supremesacrifice.

n\.1

../

AS IF FORECASTING HIS MURDER at the hands of the State, Georgewrote, with rage. 'This monster--the monster they engendered in me will return totorment its maker, from the grave. the pit, the profoundest pit. Hurl me into the nextexistence; the descent into Hell won't turn me .... I'm going to charge them reparationsin blood. I'm going 0 charge them like a maddened, wounded, rogue male elephant, earsflared. trunk raised, trumpet blaring .... War, without term~:'

33

PUBLISHERS LONG AGO ccased to print thc hooks of Gcorge Jackson,though many a tattered copy remains in circulation.' There is no profit to be madc inthe hopes and aspirations of Black people--only in their oppression. George propelledthose hopes and aspirations to the top of the agenda. He stood as a symbol incarnate of.Black pride and courage.

THE SPIRIT OF GEORGE LIVES on in the fertile legacy of commonpeople's history. His blood continues to flow through the veins of young Black peoplelashing out at the chains of colonial subjugation. His life is not lost on those whoorganize against lynch mobs from Los Angeles to Bensonhursl. His legacy continues totOffl]em the oppressor, for as tong as conditions of life deteriorate for so many, theruling class and its functionaries will harbor the fear of resistancc. Reparations WILL bepaid.

His legacy continuesto torment the oppressor

I WRITE THIS from a prison cell in the locked-down, chained-up, andpoisoned prison in Marion, Illinois. Concrete blocks are still close at hand. Throughoutits history, as well as today, Marion holds the largest concentration of political prisonersin the U.S. My cell is 20 miles from George Jackson's grave in Vernon, Illinois. On thisday I reflect on the life of our brother who gave everything he had for the freedom of hispeople.

(Script for August 16, 1990 "Inside Kites'; WORT/PM's weekly program by and about U.S.Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War.)

, since this article was written, Blood in My Eye andSoledad Brother have been reprinted.

34

FROM BEHIND

THE ••

•

A View Of The Gulf War

(excerpts from u personal feller)

THE AMERIKAN GULAG is now the largest in the world. The motherfucker ofall prison systems. The United States imprisons more of its citizens than any country onearth, and more Black people than an; taken down by apartheid. When the U.S. isn'tbusy supporting apartheid, it's busy practicing it. A type of re-enslavement. The price offreedom, says our government. includes over on'e miTIion children, women and menimprisoned behind the bars of the amerikan flag. A cost of living increase whichincludes the unemployed. homeless. hungry, and sick, We have entered the killing zonethat constitutes crimes against humanity, which is to say, a particularly heinous offensecommitted during war. The government says, and we damn well know, that war wageswithin the borders of Amerika. The poor of Amerib are more endangered of life andlimb than the Amerikan soldier parked in the Persian Gulf. Death bears out this fact.

PRISONERS OF CLASS and conflict; prisoners of oppressed -nations andnationalities; political prisoners and prisoners of war against colonialism. The PrisonersRights Union (California) recently completed a study which concluded that extremeforms of "discipline", ranging from beatings and assaults of prisoners to sensorydeprivation for prolonged periods are the norm in maximum security prisons across theU.S. The norm in Amerika is to subject prisoners to neglect, abuse, and the longestsentences in the world (Amerika has a penchant for records). Flagship Marion is

35

symptomatic in that it has been continually locked down since 1Q83 and cited byAmnesty International for violating every one of the United Nations Standard MinimalRules for the Treatment of Prisoners.

THINK ABOUT IT -- over one million prisoners waiting to return to thearmy of under and unemployed. That's equivalent to the total number of soldiers onboth sides of the Gulf War. The prisoners are coming home to pay their respects afteryears of being abused, assaulted, humiliated, sensory deprived, and worked for criminalwages. Out of a revolving door through which another million will eventually pass;tormented with symptoms of PTSD, ready to implode or explode upon impact with theAmerikan landscape. It should be some homecoming.

IF RECIDIVIST STATISTICS mean anything, we know that the largemajority will commit further crimes -- to survive, to signify, to strike back. We will havethe lumpen and bottomed-out working class at their worst unless we can wake up theconsciousness, triumph human dignity, and develop a base from which we can organizeand seriously kick in survival programs on multiple levels. Survival implies at least anapprenticeship with the martial arts.

THE LEFT AND I. The movements and us. The left had a brief flingwith prisoners in this country but it has long since passed. Ironic, given the numbers andcomposition of the prison population. The extended families. It took the Attica uprisingand George Jackson to force their attention span beyond what it was accustomed to.Today there is little meaningful recognition of political prisoners. The perception seemsto be that there is no political capital to be had in defending those who have beencaptured. Not enough of us to bother with you say? A soccer stadium filled to burstingis more in line with your world view? By then you'll be looking at your broken fingerbones wondering who'll remember you? Workers? Don't start me to talkin', I'll telleverything I know. An academic issue with too ·many groups whose leadership andperspective is middle class. The poor? "The People" if you like them; lumpen if youhave reservations. My kind of people. But it's a hard row to hoe when you don't have apot to piss in. But we do get lot~ of ink in the literature. Soldiers? Ah yes - theproletariat armed. Serious weaponry. Lots of recent emphasis on organizing GI's - anecessary component of anti-war and anti-imperialist organizing. But where was theeffort before the deployment to the Gulf? it's been playing catch-up with a blitzkrieg.There have been some laudable efforts but much of it came from a defensive posture oropportunistic design, with some anti-war formations wrapped in their own version ofyellow ribbons.

36

•

•

THERE WAS an organizational rep who a5ked my opinion on the GulfWar, from the perspective of a Viet Nam veteran, though not from the perspective of asoldier still at war. Understandable request. but a real piece of irony none the less. Ispent twelve months in the Viet. am combat zone. I spent 120 months fighting fromclandestinity right here in the heart of the beast. Yet my Viet Nam service draws moreinterest, as it often did in past media interview.. Why is that? The government indicteume for sedition covering the years 1974-1984 stating ..... it was further part of theconspiracy that the defendants did state in a communiqu~ that as a mailer ofrevolutionary principal and strategy. 'we must expose and attack military contractors likeHoneywell [among other misdeeds, a producer and peddler of cluster bombs]...we mustcontinue to attack U.S. imperialism, its military, and its war producers.' That defendantsrequested, encouraged, incited, and asked other persons, known and unknown to them,to commit acts of sabotage and armed actions."

ASK ME about war profiteers and white collar mercenaries out therepimping for the government, and why I advocate sweeping away all pests!!

I CO FESS THAT my first act of sahotage was in 1964, at the volatile ageof seventeen. This was several years before I became politically conscious and active. Ilearned how to sabotage machinery from French-Canadians in the mill where we worked.The owners were burning us out with speed-ups and other hazards so we threw theproverbial shoe, Ie sahot, into the machines. Temporary relief in ;1 non-union shop.

WHY, THEN, when people think of me soldiering do they think of me asa young dude in 'Nam, 1966-67, rather than a seasoned veteran from a ten year hitchunderground (where in some re 'pects I saw more action Ulan in Viet Nam). Do they seein my reflection the blood in my eye, the unabashed militancy, the faded pay stubs,tarnished dreams, physical deprivation, the prison within the prison within the prison?(During the sedition trial, I showed folks photos of me from the 'Nam.- steel pot, flakjacket, M-14, machine gun on standby. That isn't you, they'd respond. Can't be. Is it?).I'm asked what it was like to fight for the government, ralher than my more significantand meaningful fight agaimt the government. Certainly, every soldier bears witness. InViet Nam I got a birds-eye view of bomb craters from the shotgun seat next to the doorgunner. I saw a couple of gunships go down, killing 14-15 men, hut I didn't see brokenbodie . I saw a few dead and wounded when our convoy hit a mine. I was pulled deepinto the eyes of the Vietnamese peuple.

BUT TODAY, you want to see aerial bombardment, you turn on the sharpcolor images of the television. Then listen carefully, very carefully, to (he survivors. WhatI can do is give you basic instruction on how to attack war cri l11 inals and theircollaborators.

THERE'S BEEN There's been much timely analysis of the Gulf War andfolks can contemplate it. This war used up more analysi· than small arms ammunition.

37

On the plus side there i, Noam Chom,ky who knows how to engage till: enelllY with hispen. Intellectual dynamite. The man's writing smokes. The point is, its been said,underlined, underscored, wrung out, and ,aid again. So, asks Philip l3errig~lI1, (I like thisdude, bro) why the surprise and shock when a declining empire sinks its teeth into theThird World; when it bleeds humanity to salvage its own existence? We have a tbousandbooks, social upbeavals, wars, and revolutions that map out the imperial strategy. Not tomention what's been happening in our own suffering and dying communities. The GulfWar was preceded by the U.S. inva~ion of Panama. The cot1linuing carnage in EISalvador didn't stop because of transgressions in the Gulf. The priorities of imperialismstill weave its web in Southern Africa.

BERRIGAN GOES 0 I TO ASK -- Who is responsible for this war? Hisanswer -- All of us. I tend to agree. Let's not begin by looking at the higher echelonsof the military-industrial complex. Everyone who is criticiZing begins with the obvious.Or Iraq's occupation of Kuwait. Again, highly culpable. Lets begin with the troops since"support the troops" without supporting the war is one of the biggest scams to come outof this conflict. A: bogus a. the yellow rain over Llos that the State Department triedto pass off as Soviet chemicals when in fact it was the feces of bees. The "support thetroops" scam began to develop a life of its own in lhe wake of a policy vote by thosespineless spectacles in the U.S. congress.

JUST TO BE CLEAR: I am sympathetic with Gt':, as I am with vets,prisoners, workers, and all liS poor folk who bear a considerable burden. After all, Ishare the experience. Working with these people has been the focus of my politicalactivism. Having served in the U.S. Army (honorably discharged, Ih:.lIlk you) and VietNam, I'm well aware of how economic conditions and enticing drumbeats can lead oneto put on a uniform. I fully support efforts to organize GIs and 10 implement effortssuch as your own community sanctuary. [Refers to a broad based dfort to makeMadison, WI a sanctuary for G I resisters to the Gulf War.] I thought it rook a good dealof courage for Jeff Patterson to refuse to cros~ the line on the tarmac in Hawaii andthen go on after jail and discharge to organize against the war. 'ote, however, the usualagenda is to ignore Gis outside of a major military conflict.

After all, I share the experience • • •

WHE. I LOOK at the Gulf War I see a complete waste of human life,civilian and soldier. Once again it's the working class being used to kill their own.Again, Third World people are treated as expendable. During the First World War, BigBill Haywood said there was not a piece of capitalist property that was worth a laborer'slife to defend. A far cry from being "all you can be" in Army grecn. My sympathy with

38•

,­, , .

Ih<, ,,)Idicr W:lII<" when h<, picks lip :I rillc or othcr il11l'kmcllt "f destruction andprllcccds to kill, maim, and destroy for god and ('olll1lry.

UNQUALIFIED SUPPORT for soldiers is a haodwagon you won't see meon. They got me once but not again. In" re('CIII Guardiall piece, Earl Ofari Hutchinson.makes an interesting observation: "Black troops in the Gulf should not be blamed forbeing there_ They are victims, too. They ate involuntary volunleers, poverty draftees whonow have little choice but to follow orders." In other articles I've seeh more'or less thesame analysis applied to pnor,working class, Latino, and won1en soldiers. Obviously,Hutchinson, et al were not at the My Lai Massacre. A massaete that can be said to bethe legacy of the enslavement of Africans and decimation of Native Americans. TheAmerikan predator. Calley and the others of the Americal Division (the cover-up wentquite high) said they were just following orders. The sort of trench warfare where youshoot

Shoot civilians a'nd let

them' drop •In a ditch • •

civilians and let them drop in a ditch. They, too, said they had little choice but to followorders. There's ALWAYS a choice other than following orders. The Nurembergprincipals prohibit a defense based on "following orders" when charged with criminal actscommitted during war. In fascist El Salvador, Guatemala, Chile, South Africa, Indonesia,Israel and elsewhere, soldiers of dealh purport to be following orders. And from whereare these soldiers recruited? Dig it -- in the mother of all bombings, the pilots andbombardiers were just carrying out orders - in this instance, thc nuclear destruction ofHiroshima and Nagasaki.

CONSIDER THIS: the average age of the GJ's in the Gulf was 26. In VietNam it was 20. Almost all have high schoo! diplomas. They are volunteers, well trained,and part of the highest paid military in the world. If they step out to fight for god, guts,glory, and the improved G1 bill, then they are responsible for their actions. Theycertainly will bask in the limelight a, long as they have it which, if history continues torepeat itself, they 'may not have for long. Whatever part of the war machine you'reoiling and operating, you bear some responsibility. Recognition of this is a prerequisitetowards disruption and disengagement/resistance, from within and outside the militaryapparatus..

39

1 REMEMBER the Pentagon demonstrations fro III years back and theflowers placed in the muzzles of soldiers' rines. That's cool. there's room for variedapproaches to reach hearts and minds. I also remember the Student NonviolentCoordinating Committee and Black Panther Party posters during the Viet Naill War .­Uncle Sam pointing -- "I want YOU, nigger", "Receive valuable training in the skills ofkilling off other oppressed people", "Die Nigger Die - You can't die fast enough in theghettos." Those who say that soldiers can't help what they got themselves into have neverbad to look down the business end of an M16 or suffered the effects of bombardmentand shelling. Remember the brothers' testimony at Viet Nam Veterans Against the War"Winter Soldier" investigation? That was about exposing abuses and stopping a war, nolmaking excuses for participating ill il.

IRONIC, IS IT NOT, that pulitical prisoners in Amerika are abandoned bymuch of the left that hold us dearly responsible for political/military activities they don'tapprove of. Yet now they support t!:le divisions which drive the armada into the middleeast ("support the hoops, not the war!").' .

WHEN HAVE AMERICAN SOLDIERS prott;~ted the rights of workersor oppressed nations? On the contrary. From Detroit and Newark, to Managua (manytimes) and Grenada, as occupation forces and strikebreakers. soldiers have acted asthugs for Wall Street, to paraphrase marine Major General Smedley Butler. Offer themfriendship and refuge, organize them if you can, encour.age resistance, but in the finalanalysis you have to be prepared to bring some of them down.

THIS IS '01' AN ACCUSATION of war crimes against individual sol,diersand armies. A search for war criminals begins with the higher ranking officers, well­placed politicians, money makers, on down to the murderer hiding in uniform. However,with all the winning attributes being ascribed to the troops, I figure its also 'fess up timefor GI Joe and Josephine.

I'VE EXPERIENCED the law of gravity enough to know that shit rollsdown hill. When you pull on the thread. as you peel back layers of insulation and followthe paper trail, you will come across greater degrees of re.spollsibility amI culpability,until all covered with shit is the war criminal and collaborators.

WHEN BOMBS AND MISSILES rained down on Iraq, killing andwounding thousands of civilians, this hardware bore the fingerprints of military

40

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ri'l 1\1Pl.RI \J I, '1'<;; tl!c t teil Ihe Iraqi.,. afler 'Iau"!llering their familte"1,11;1' tilly .trc In h l,II'1"f '" ptesitkl]l ,,1 lhc'ir n,lIn''\ f',lr the 11<:.;tl1,_ H'l'" convenient.llu,l· niH'- he l" 11'11.l', tOil m;tnv '1';'. rtk:,", 'ike the '1ltIHk'rer 01 11;."ey ~1"k, to profler·,ltd a 'nrr, ·",cd ,!den-" ,," 11,- "rtIri'n:d ·'lOdlj,·t Prohlem i' lwoplc cat it up, Inill"!in:

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IT lOtH TH! \\11:I'IC; 'S :'II;c! the Brits a munl!loI so to drop l1Ioreh'lml·, and (. ,.,'o·-t c: II" r .;11\ (11', '\',til"lit ti'11C pniod i" \\WlJ rht:> homhing,of,aCIvilian 'Ii- I.' ,hl'lter 1 tla)!hd;!l lin'''' the f1II'Q attention, and tJicwrtion. Childrenwere 'pc;C1l·rat('{••d"n!' ,,'th 111<'11 I o'thcr, alI(I cluer\. Thl'Y w"'e'hil hy one or !WO(;Ill ·2':' ~.')i)" II" I \ft ' 'f1"I"II"<:lured h I t:\;" In\lrllltE't b (wpen they uren't making"alrtJl~ii""I rhe. t! l,<)ml' w"r" "I'II't,d fl. '" t,,, the "\lealth" fIn, l'nor In thehqmh,\)g, f),'fcnse (m:)' ':Cl tar, I lid: ( r-c:nc\ ~\l1d ·Joint (hid chairman Gcneral Cntin'PI''' :'1 '''i'cd!)' a ~'c'''lr ,"'(;;) rnT] in Sa'll t w'a:ltograph a pair f\r 2.000 Ih. homh"h "I "llinal tv\' !J:lrtar l" t'l' I .1 ,gl'a!'." ill,n,b WIHCh I,kntifie the perpetrator.\i,: i:Q an~~ lhetrinc. rhi ... ",! ~11 ...-' .l'l {' (', POll'" Ji,rr~pect f01 hunlan life qualific!'I them

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'.

There'sto kil a kid

than on,e way~om a warplane.

Till· H()\IIl,\Rll~ll. I (11 m \() ha' large ted the lifelll1e' of c'ilic,'andto\.\ p ... neu;hhorhonJ,,: ·.lI..·!Oflt.· .......chooi.... trail llortilPon. ..lOU ..:onlmunit"'::nion \v"tenl'-."u('!. ;'n water \\,','111'. A~ I \\Til' tl"" the homhiltg !l'L' "ea:l'l hllt l-hilclrcn cotllinlle 10

Irk, al1(l dil' foil' !he dC\';t':,'llflr, p;lr'f{'"I"! i 'hc de,trltctiolt of \\:lIer ,upplie' and,'y, I)!e ""Ic "'. rherl', l1lorc' ,. 1'111 ' nl' "a~ I I k"l ;' kid fronl a warplane

I FOUND IT INTERESTING when a USAF general played a video of thebombing of the Iraqi Ministry of "Defense" which he referred to as "my counterpart".The Pentagon, to be sure. This made me curious as to what the general's reaction wouldbe if the Pentagon were bombed. Would he begin raging about a cowardly criminalterrorist act? Most certainly he would.

HERE I SIT IN A PRISON CELL, pulling down a life sentence of 45years for bombing U.S. military facilities where not a person received so much as ascratch. Facilities of those who are knee deep in the blood of the people of CentralAmerica. Indeed, aggression must stop here! Look at the heavy prison sentences laidon the Resistance Conspiracy comrades for bombing that millionaires' club in the Capitolbuilding -- a righteous response to the invasion of Grenada. Tim Blunk and SusanRosenberg tortured with a 58 year sentence for the mere possession of explosives.

U.S. WARPLANES have been obliterating courthouses, post offices, andother government buildings including that of the Ba'ath Party. Lethal and symbolicbombings. Can you imagine the reaction to a bombing of a dominant party headquartersin Washington, D.C. any time these parties foment some act of territorial aggression!TlJq:.d.have to operate out of bunkers if they took their international law seriously (buL­of course they never did until Kuwait).

FOR NO DISCERNIBLE REASON other than the sheer terror value ofit, U.S. planes strafed Jordanian and Sudanese refugees fleeing the destruction of thecities. In the most gruesome attack 60 were killed on a couple of buses, includingchildren who were burned to death. What is the punishment for burning children todeath in an act of war? I recall a case back in Maine that made national headlines whena man put his infant son in a microwave and hit the switch. He was so despised inprison they had to place him in protective custody. But for Air Amerika, its business asusual and quite deliberate, as college-educated pilots press button after button, droppingbomb after bomb, for which they are decorated for service to their country.

RECALL in the early 70's when Viet Nam Veterans Against the War hadto switch gears and focus on the massive air war and the "electronic battlefield". Iremember having to work harder at holding people's attention on a war where the bodybags weren't coming back at such a brisk rate. Frustration, trying to convince peopletheir government was violating the sanctity of human life by systematically killing somany Vietnamese. The electronic gadgetry and distant air strikes provided a buffer fromwhich they could relieve themselves of the bloody stain of amerika's war crimes. I haveno more sympathy for bomber pilots than do their victims, which is to say, none.

-_.42

WITII EACH WAR Ihc U.S. has cngagl:d in this c<'l1lury, the numbers nfcivilian ca. ualties, compared to military. 11a, innea.,ed. Mnre and morc civilians killedfor each soldier that dies. In the U.S war against Indochina, civilian, were ~5% of theviclims. This war may cqual or ~urpass tha\. Thc number of Iraqi military deaths maynever be known, most of them conscripts, blown III pieces by unchallcnged aircraft.

IT IS A THOUSAND WORD PICTURE to walch technicians, groundcrews, pilots and bombardiers fondle their explo. ive.' and write slogans of bravado on thebomhs. Marx must be rolling over in his grave with this sort of working class disunity.With background research, we just might find the diversified holdings of a war COlllractorhave been cranking out these vile yellow ribbon' and plastic nags. They are like that,you know, cranking out light fixtures in one city and machine;: guns in the nex\. Howmany people pass through Burlington, Vermont or l3iddeford, Maine realizing plams inboth communities produce enormous amounts of machine guns? These are not "defensecontractors," they arc merchants of death peddling thl'ir product line, technology, andskills rather than some rudimentary comb:lt training. I'm reminded of Jack London'sdescription of The Scab, which can be adopted by the war profi eer: a two-legged animalwith a cork-. crew soul, a water-logged brain. a combination backbonc nf jelly and glue.Wher<: o.thers have hearts, he carries a tumor of rotten principles.

,SOME Of, TlIESE PROFITEERS ne<:d to end up before war crimes

tribunal,. As Hitler's financ" minister said al tbe 'uremb<:rg war crimes triab, "If you• walll to prosecute the industrialists who madc possible the rearmHl11cnl of Germany. then

you will end up prosecuting your own industrialist~." He was referring to U.S.corporations that supplied a generous flow of aid and loans 0 the fascists. fncluded wasGeneral Motor, which had a tJirect pipeline to Germany's war m;lchine. GM is today amajor military contractor. Playing both sides of a connict to make a financial killing isnothing new, though the Gulf War has scrwd (rl m(lrC clearly illu~lratc the interlockingparts.

These are not "defense contractors",they are merchants of death ...

4~

DURING THE 1980's, the United Freedom Front and others began totarget war profiteers. With good reason, as their communiques indicate. After bombingthe General Electric offices of the aerospace strategic planning and aircraft designdivision, the UFr action and communique focussed on GE's production role on the A37 "counterinsurgency" warplane and 7.62mm minigun. They were and are being used asyou read this against the Salvadoran resistance and in the terror campaign against thecivilian population. The UFF also attempted to prod the conscience of the industries'workers, to act to stop the bleeding of other workers and peasants. To do something forthe benefit of humanity.

THE LEVEL OF COLLABORATION remains high, particularly duringrecessionary times and phases of patriotic fervor. The war profiteers pay good moneybecause war and the constant preparation and prodding for it remains good business.Unfortunately, much of the privileged middle class like to tout the idea they are a kindlyand ju t people; the mythology of the white proletariat. A hard nut to crack, yetsomething needs to be done if there is to be rcsistance on a wider front.

DURING THE COURSE OF THIS WAR I noticed the focus onRaytheon Corporation. Raytheon's infrastructure is prominent on the high-tech highwaywhich circles Boston. During the sedition trial the government alleged beaucoupsurveillance notes of Raytheon were seized from one of the houses. "Possession is nine­tenths of the crime," in this case seditious conspiracy. Fortunately the jury felt 9/10 wa~

not enough to topple the government. It's a cakewalk to get to many uf these facilities,while others involve a much more concerted effort.

UNTIL THE PATRIOT MISSILE was launchcd most people wereunaware that Raytheon is the nation's second largcst supplier of military electronics.

ot withstanding the focus on the defensive mode of the Patriot. their weaponry andtechnology is lethal and offensive in the extreme. Significantly. Raytheon is the largestnon·governmental employer in Massachusetts. People plead to gel jobs at Raytheon. Arecent letter in Z Magazine from an anti-war employee stated that he had sought toorganize the workers against the war. A little something on the path of least resistance,but even his modest efforts proved futile. When Bush showed up at the plant to addressthe troops, the workers responded with red, white and blue flags provided by Raytheon.The money's not just good, it's sweet.

IN UPSTATE NEW YORK, the U.S. arsenal at Watervliet had beenlaying off until the violent advent of this thing called New World Order. Layoffs werecancelled and production resumed on the 120 mm guns for the M-IA1 tank. Localcitizens say that as long as there's war they'll have work. They point out that the war hasimproved morale considerably which had been at a low ebb with layoffs. The entirecommunity is awash in something resembling yellow baby shit. The $12.00 salary can'tbe beat in an area where manufacturing is dying out and the largest employer (N.Y.state) is laying off.

44

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ACROSS COU TRY in Minllcapoli" workers al Allian! Techsystems(manufactllrcrs of 25 mm shells for AI'C'J) weill Oil strike, Community sentiment turnedagainst the strike when the war hegan"in earne,t. The strike was said to be against theilllcrcst of U.S. troops; i.e .. U.S. p()licy~':;nd the strikers settled without a concessionheing made hy management. They returned tu an average wage of $12.40.

I READ an interesting piece in "'c\\lsweek elllitled, "Should We KillSaddam?" "We" has been one of those terrillly'"exploited words. The author of thisarticle teaches the "law of war" to marine officers at Quantico. His conclusion is thatSaddam is suitable for assassination or death by other" violent methods because: 1) he'sa member of the military within a chain of command, 2) wears a uniform with rankinsigni~, and 3) carries arms openly. I see the same rationale as being app,licable to theComm.ander in Chief of U.S. Armed Forces, George Bus!I, as well as Quayle (thethinking person's National Guardsman), Cheney, Powell, and others. The CIA don'toften wear camos'but do build incredible killing machines. Bush is the lead man inevery "sense of the military term, within a military framework. As for uniform withinsignia, the more recent Protocols to the Geneva Convention (adapting rules of war toanti-colonial and national liberation struggles) moot this point. Guerrillas seldom wearepaulets. Besides, a windbreaker with executive logo or a three-piece suit is as mucl~

uniform as you need these days to carry out acts of barbarism. As for carrying armsopenly, well, openly or concealed, or whether you have a group of thugs carry themaround you, it all comes down to the power and capacity to kill (the FMLN should hangon to that photo of VP Quayle wielding a shoulder fired missile launcher withSalvadoran soldiers looking on. Exhibit -- war crimes trial -- from which the dead ofCentral America will speak). ..

• f ,".. ~ ....

a three-piece: suit is as much uniformas you "need these days to carry out

acts ". of barbarism ...

THE NEWSWEEK ARTICLE didn't propo~e a" trial or tribunal for Saddam, justa quick kill. Turning the ,analogy around is t~e SOrl of. political thinking that ends up asevidence at sedition trials.

4S

I THINK MOST OF US realize that Iraq's invasion of Kuwait was wrong fromjump street, as were any abuses committed under occupation. However, it's unfortunatethat the general public's introduction to international law comes about through theseevents. It has become easy for the media to manipulate the forest into a tree.

THE PUBLIC is functionally illiterate when it comes to international law, itsapplicability, and the role of the United States in thwarting it. One need only examinethe abysmal voting record of the U.S. in the United Nations to see that the U.S. hasfrustrated the implementation of international law at every turn (particularly in theSecurity Council where it has veto power). The U.S. has vetoed or voted against UNresolutions that condemn the invasion bf Panama; Israeli invasion of Lebanon and theoccupation of Palestine; the condemnation of the U.S. support of contras and other actsof aggression and economic warfare against Nicaragua (which was also declared unlawfulby the World court); and a whole range of UN initiatives which sought to preserve andprotect human rights, implement nuclear disarmament, put an end to apartheid and U.S.colonialism in Puerto Rico. And that's JUSt a small sampling.

NOT ONLY does the U.S. block the implementation of international law, iJ is oneof the most frequent viofatorJ of it. Now it demands immediate compliance underpunishment of death.

THE U.S. ROLE IN THE GULF is one of unilateral military action with themost powerlul force in the world. It was intended to present the ultimate obstacle topeaceful negotiation and resolution of the conflict. The UN resolutions became U.S.resolutions as politicians travelled the globe stuffing U.S. dollars and other bribes intothe pockets of desperate governments. Thus, it somehow becomes legitimate to wagehigh intensity war over Kuwaiti self-determination while the Palestinians are stripped oftheir homeland and U.S. storm troopers run roughshod in Panama. That level ofhypocrisy and :deceit will bring the chickens home to roost.

THERE WI,LL BE NO post-war crimes tribunal. ' The rhetoric around war crimes(e.g. the vid~o performance of U.S. POWS) is intended to'appease an acquiescent publicwith a quick fix. Nuremberg inVOlves acts which consti,ttite crimes against. humanity (suchas apartheid, which the U.S. has supported in all its manifestations for decades); warcrimes (such as the U.S. committed in Viet Nam, Panama. and by proxy in EI Salvador);and crimes against peace (for which the World Court found the U.S. culpable in itsattack against Nicaragua). The U.S. would never tolerate an internationally supervisedwar crimes trial that examined the conduct of the victor as well as the vanquished. Anhonest application of Nuremberg principles would lead to the indictment of political,corporate, and military leaders from the highest levels of the U.S. ruling class. There is·no statute of limitations on war crimes and crimes against humanity.

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NOTE BUSH'S INTEREST in AmlJesty Internatiunal's report on human righL~

abuses by Iraq.. "Must reading" says George, .clutching the report to his heart. Bushshould keep on reading right through Amnesty's reports of horrendous human righL~

abuses in EI Salvador, Guatemala, Chile. South Africa. Israel, Indonesia, Turkey. etc. etc.- all of wh9m are U.S. client states and allies in counter-insurgency. Turkey receivesenormous U.S. aid while updating the book on torture and repression includingpersecution of the Kurds. While Bush clutched Amnesty's report on Iraq, the fir. t aerialbombardment began. While the public's eye was diverted, full U.S. military aid wasrestored to the fascist regime in EI S,!lvador - January 16th. On January 21st, .government &oldiers went into the Salvadoran village of El Zapote and carried outanother bloodbath, shooting and hacking. to de;'lth 15 innocents. EI $alvador's non- .governmental Human Rights Commission cites the Salvadoran army for the a~sassination'

of over a tho.usand civilians in 1991 (another 185 dea'ths were ascribed to that specialcategory - government death squads). On January 29th the United States provided theSalvadoran goverriment with more war planes and helicopter gunships.

COINCIDENTALLY, I received an Amnesty International report on PoliceTorture in Chicago, Illinois dated December 1990.. That'S Chicagu. Unile4 States ofAmerica,

YOU GOT TO FIGURE there's some evil doings going d(;)\'vo when the favoritepinup of Gis is a cop. Yes, in.deed, Ms. Jacqueline Philljps Guibord, a Provo, lJtahpolice officer resplendent in Wrangler jeans. badge, and shotgun (no mere prop. it lookslike a Remington Riot 12 gauge). The police - first line of defense in the sand of chissconflict and war. The pigs (you wonder why we call you pigs?) . violent, abusive, andracist. Seen recently thro'ugh video eyes in Los Angeles stomping another body. AnyMexican, Black and poor white folk from L.A. will tell you that police brutality has beena fact of life for them as long as they can remember.

THE NEW WORLD ORDER is little more than a violent announcement that theOld World Order will continue with added gusto. Expect the police to emphasize thispoint on the home front.

GENERAL H. NORMAN SCHWARZKOPF, commander of U.S. forces in thegulf says Amerika is the world;s police offlcer. .. Dictator in trouble; oligarchy trembling,popular forces mobilizing, human rights finding its expression, oil in jeopardy -- call 911Amerikka and Schwarzkopf will bring in the special weapons and tactics. His daddy

47

'-,

,

responded likewise when he went to the aid of the Shah of Iran, pumping iron into thenotorious Savak, secret police. Indeed, Schwarzkopfs daddy was at one time commanderof the New Jersey State Police. NJSP, who cut down Zayd Shakur and Assata and whichtoday holds our comrades in captivity. NJSP, those exhibitors of nazi fashion andparaphernalia, who continue to torment Third World people who make the mistake ofgetting into a car in New Jersey. Far afield you say? Perhaps I don't like the po-lease -­but the element of fascism is in their behavior.

THE U.S. is the world's leading supplier of police and prison hardware.Supplied are some of the world's most repressive regimes. The police, prisons, deathsquads, paramilitary units, torturers, operating outside the law, or using it, shoving it upthe ass of anyone who gels in the way. The Foreign Assistance Act of 1974 prohibitsU.S. military and police aid or assistance to countries engaged in human rights violations.The law is virtually ignored while soldiers and police work that side of the street.

NAZI PROPAGANDIST Herman Goering once said, "Naturally the commonpeople don't want war. ..but after all it's the leaders of the country who determine thepolicy...the people can always be brought to the bidding of their leaders...all you have todo is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists (etc.) for lack ofpatriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country."And so it does. It sucked me into the Viet Nam war 2S years ago. Saddam worked thecrowds with it. Bush has proved to be a master of deceit stroking the 3-card Montecrowd that was waiting to be taken to the cleaners.

FOR THEIR PART, american citizens have not had direct contact with thehuman element of war, such as their counterparts in war-swept cities and countryside.They don't receive the full impact of the suffering and blood which war brings to bear ona people. They have not had their schools, hospitals, and factories bombed or childrenturned to ashes before their eyes (an exception -- the incineration of MOVE families inPhiladelphia). To americans, other workers and peasants are turned into the enemy, asubhuman mass molded into copy by Pentagon representatives and a compliant newsmedia. What does it say for the national character of amerika which condones thecarnage employed against the poor, wherever on this earth imperialism corners them?When the Ugly American becomes more upset over the price of gasoline and a pound ofcoffee than with the rising cost of injustice?

48

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TIIERE IS NOT a single, valill rea~on for any pOOl and working class pcr~on to~acrifice their life for this Ne\\' World On.1<:r. 0 moral aUlllllrity. nm moral higherground frolll which to claim a ~oluicr dic fur humanity an I human right. 10 prosper, ()Ju~tificatioJl for the dead1 and n aiming of ~o many t'lvilialb,

THE rOLL point to O\crwhelming support for Bush and his war. I don't doubtthe results of these polls, It's ()h\'iou~ a ~h(Jrl of mass psychosi, is :hrobbing, but I'venever hcelT 4,lc,tioned by any of the~e polbtn , through all the war, and connicts,~e\er known anyone who has. Must I e we do 1': !lw ,n till' right neighborhuods, Thewake of war vlclOry anu other jingoi:tic prodivilie~ \1 ill make it diffiwlt to organize onthe horne from We have .et to fccl the full brunt of n:actioJl. FIJI some of us thercmay hc hell to pay.

1\ D HOMl-: rO\lL:S THE SOl.DIER. Let IllC ·tep turtl cr hack to my ownre!Urn from V;<.:t am, Dccemher 2~, Ill(,7, \Vha!", all ,t.i, 1(rufr al out am vcts beingspit on and ahused hy 11ll' people) (, 'el~(1 I COlllll1ent "n "h;1t !'tJ uo with someonemi;.pJidcu enllugh 10 spit on 111<:, !,~ISt or present I). I kllOl\ 01 no ~uch inciden myselfand .. iew thi. ~Ort (It thing a' ',he C\ccpt",n..\I1('ll· l")"'I1\,\l1. ':'I'l"cially in the earlierycar,. was for Gl's anu a, ortl"(1 11\;ld\l) "pe, !O 1'(//1/1"'1/ IOI/,!!. hI/irs I/Ild oIlier lIl/li-wlir

;I/(J;"i<lllll{l. I'm talking "ver)lhln!!- frOnl Ill'tty har;",nwnl to SCi I",,, vamping, Somefolks were frighlen.:d or put "IT hI' tib. I"hl'rt.: arl' ,till fllll,~ bal'k in my ilomeltlwn whoexplain ;lI\av my politiL-al life hy saying I got violt·1It ,!11I1 alienatcd in Viet Nanl. WhcnVV1\ V l'ccamc a ,il!nlf'ieant pan of till" anti-war movcment. till" litle' began to blur.Active dllty Gb ]oint'd l"c re,i"ann:. I Ie II ll1an, we rl"juvenatul lite wholc movement.If anyo 1(' \Vi..lS ahu<"in v u." if \ovac.... (he pig:". and our 0\\ n governllh.:"IJ1.

WIlE. I GO'I l SED a, a '.in"rmat after 1"turtling fronl I\am, it was by thepow<.'r of thL ,tatc, DUring a period ,f politic;1! act:"ity alll] anli-war work, 1 got hashedin the teeth with their cannahis law" -I he ir!l,)kr:\!.cc anu lac" 1)1 understanding werefrightening. Th':l1 " . 'arled 0 funher unlolu. tlte bl:lcklt,ting (man, I couldn't get afuck ng joh!); Ihe Wb ;n prisop' tltl' scourge llf V.A ho pitals, gcnt Orange; l3Iaekvderans wllhoul justice; 11l1li'e1e,.' vc ~ (10 tlil' pOInt wltere toda) Ii.e governmCI1l it;.c1fadmits that a Ihml of hOl11elc~s lIlt:n arc \'ctcr;,n,); PT<;() :ll1d the spiraling problemswith alcohol and drug ahu'c. Ami political reprc"inn. 'Pill': "f II l1id. tHrgeted ViclnamVeterans Again\[ the W;;r.

tIT t Irw W..\Tf-'Rll\;(; I rot ES lltt' mo~l patriotic of all \eterans looked withdi~t.Iain at thc young Vietnam wts, Which is a' do~e as I came 10 gelling ,pit on. Myown falher, a world \\ar II 'eteran, has not spoken ttl me sincc 1l.J(,1) bCl'au'c he fel! it\\a, traitoroll. of me to oppose the I\~.r and support the Black lih.::ralion 'ltruggle. Asyou. ay bro, contracts are II riaen in blood. Wh,) .In: Bush and the multinationals'cbcming with today that they'll \\;,11t to thrO\, young 'oldiers against tomorrow?

49

THIS WAS a relatively short war, about six weeks, but with an assemblage ofimmense killing power. The ground war. nothing short of a rout, lasted a matter ofhours. Approximately 100 KiA's among U.S. forces. The marines lost more than doublethat in the '83 attack in Beirut, which should speak volumes about the advantages ofunconventional tactics against a superior force. For the Gulf War effort all U.S. soldiersare to receive the National Defense Medal, as we did in Nam. Cheap thrill. Lookingover the casualty figures, I don't see a single KiA among the 82nd Airborne, an entiredivision. Yet the world's civilian populations hang on the brink, knowing full well thatthe nuclear threat and chemical/biological bombs were being held by the masters of war.

IN THE MIDDLE EAST, a single spark can start a roaring fire. Bush wailedabout a scorched earth policy, watching those petro-dollars going up in smoke, but notan iota of support for Palestine which the zionists are trying to burn beyond recognition.Recall what Began said during the invasion of Lebanon -- he will kill ten Lebanesecivilians and five Palestinians if this leads to the elimination of a simple fedayeen.Shabra, Shatila, AI Akoa, the Intifada, there will be no peace without justice. This was awar in which U.S. soldiers were safer and more comfortable than Iraqi civilians who borethe madness of daily bombing raids and had to struggle for food, water, and medicine.There were casualties in Kuwait. though unclear as to how many.

GIs HAD A BETTER rate of survival than had they been home workingproduction lines and construction jobs. Bush has slated a. much in his regurgitated "waron crime" legislation, though he chose to emphasize how unsafe the streets are forreturning soldiers. I've seen an carlier House version of this legislation. Be preparedfor a fascist implant with Thornberg riding a wave of repression. The commentators andpundits are saying the sort of shock therapy u!ilized in the Gulf is what's needed on thehome front. Consider the fullowing: accofl.ling to figures of the Occupational Safety andHealth Administration (a government agency given [0 downgrading negative figures)200,000 workers have been killed on the job since IlJ70, ahout 20,000 a year. That's 60dead women, children and men a day. One and a half million permanently disabled.Since '1970, more than 2 million workers dead frolll the conditions where they labored.It's estimated that approximately 250,000 will die in the ncxt 10 years from asbestosrelated illnesses, contracted on the job. The response of the asbestos industry has beento crawl behind the federal judiciary to avoid paying damages.

ACCORDING TO the World Summit for Children (United Nations) 40,000children under age 5 die in developing countries every day: Ihis horror repeats itself. Itis the colonial and imperial legacy, as is Kuwait.

Al'lD WITH ALL THE CO CERN about chemical warfare I see theunforgivable crime of the Butcher of Bhopal (India) - the Union Carbide Corporation ­saturating Indian people with their poison causing over 2,000 deaths and untold suffering.The UFF claimed reo ponsibility for rearranging Union Carbide laboratories during an

50

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after hours visit to their facilities.

AN ANTI-IMPERIALIST VIEW? I think so, although it's not always a simplematter to follow all the economic sleight of hand. One outstanding fact, gluttonousAmerika, with 6% of the world's population con'sumes more than 60% of the world's oil.Although Germany and Japan consume most of the Kuwaiti oil, imperial control lies inthe force that Arnerikan power brings to bear on the peoples and natural resources ofother nations. You can follow the bloody trail for the bombing of Baghdad, to Palestine,Southeast Asia, Africa, and before you know it you're at wounded knee. Sand Creek, andLabor's Untold Story - Bloody Ludlow. The entire capitalistjimperialisl.enterprise isbuilt on theft and violence.

THEY CAN TELEVlZE and orchestrate their high tech weaponry, but I still feelthe adage that the revolution will not be televised. Not as long as there exists a flickerof hope and a will to fight among the oppressed and the salient factor that a five dollarweapon can take out the most highly trained pilots and a homespun lED (incendiaryexplosive device) can .render their ~illing m\,chines useless,

IRAQ'S LOSSES were immense. Specific numners have not been released butthe human toll - killed in action - could be as high as 50,000 (ooliterated by fallingbombs and artillery Which resemb'led some sort of blooJthirsty sport), Many morewounded. A lot of conscripts died. Someone besides the triggerman bears responsibilityfor these soldiers. To place them in a static defense, then watch the supply lines cut andthe relentless bombings was sheer arrogance and stupidity. Makes me think ofArmstrong Custer, with as much disgust. By the time the Iraqis were in full retreat,Schwarzkopf could allow 2 or 3 of their infantry divisions to pass deeper into Iraq. Hethen made the observution these divisions were insignificant and they posed no threat ofoffensive capability. Two or three infantry divisions being considered insignificant! It's atelling commentary on conventional military challenges to the t<:chno-beasl. Which iswhy I go with the War of the Flea and take what can be had from the foco and otherstrategies and tactics of People's war. Formidable weapons wilen activated through theheart, initiative, and imagination of the guerillu.

AS THE SMOKE CLEARS from the buttlefield. the old wounds will remain.The U.S. will undoubtedly maintain a military presence beyond what it was before thewar. The wretched of the earth are still dispossessed in the Middle East and elsewhere.The imperialists still dictate the terms of survival through the International MonetaryFund and World Bank. When that policy falters, they send in the CI.t\ and milituryadvisors - low intensity. If that stick doesn't work, then in come the army, air force.navy, and marines - high intensity.

ON THE DOMESTIC SATTLEFIELD there\ no new order that doesn't utilize

51

more r..,pre"ion, raei"n. and I)()\'..,I ty. Ilu,h i, prt1p",ing llJ inert.:a", the pri""l budgd by(IY";. \,Iorl' pri,ons, Ju,t a, t' .S. ,oldicr, arc nOI ri~lIred into the unelllploylIlent figures.nl'ith.:r arc the nation\ pri,oner,. Ikll or a wa~ to deal with jobk"ncs, and the housing,hortage. At the pre,enl rate of growth nlllrl' than half Ill' all alllcric'ans would he inprison hy the year 205J. Rl'cakulating George Ol'\\ell. Advanced 1'~lpitalism heing whatit is. the other half of the citizenry are likely 10 be working in mrreclions or otheraspects of the "security" apparatus.

• I WATCH these tendencies because I'm in prison and on line to be sent to thegovernment's new master plan, control unit joint in Colorado. The contract to buildphase one has been awarded to an "employee owned" firm. Worker against worker,again. When will we ever learn. This latest development in 20th century penology willbe a prison where ''windows will be non-exis\ent" and prisoners will "never leave theircells." Presumably so we can acclimate ourselves to a living death.

but we must continue to raiseour voices against this madness • • •

I TELL YOU, MY BROTHER, it's a heartache and a half. I make love withfreedom every night, hold to the principles, sing bluesey songs in my head, and reach forthe warmth of my children. I've not lost the vision of why I lOok up the fight 23 yearsago. Life is hard and the pain can be excruciating, but we must continue to raise ourvoices against this madness that destroy~ the innocence of chilliren. Bureaucraticsocialism was a bust, but socialist ideas can he brought ttl life. We can build analternative to imperial plunder and devastation on the streeLs of Amerika. I believe withall my heart that the human spirit will prevail and thaI our slruggle is a necessary andworthy sacrifice.

Keep Hauling Up the Morning.International Women's Day, 1991

52

Vl:\"'Y yr<\l{ ;\(j().l wa illlroducc',11" the 11(0.' allu thoughl ofVlalctllm X. It haPI":Ilt:l! ill Ihe ,ecmingly nlik\' u,,:., of Te"Ill.'~'t"c< ueath nl\\ in

:\\h ilk. \ly Tirsl'tl.'acill·' wa~ a Black prb(lner fro 111 ~kml'his--Jc~,t= X. "WhiIC" wa~ hissia c .1' me, So1Ill.'(1Ill' had branue.J\:enerallolh o( hi, rami!y \\ith tile name "Whil ...." i'olili, hrtl,hcr th ... ',lave 1l:llIlt. \Ignifieu ownership-<ll1d he Va\Il'1 ahoul hl.'illg oWlleu all\lIl"r" (),. !;ralllwa,!J.·u ,'ithlr--I)ol ,illc': he'd l",!!Ill" U;, 11 .1a1colll X.

\lIAI.COI.;\l X wal lir\l and IOJ,llI'ISI, ',"c,al"r :\ rl'\'olutionary, A mallwho h:ld lhl will :\11(' Vl~:(,n 10 hr(':d, d,' chaills, Ilis , Jlllrihut,"" :,, thc ljhcr:ltion ofBlack pClJl'lc i ;mmt=n,e YC" illllJlc:""r:,Hc I ',,\ '111 ,. ,urahL- h"cause he plalllcd anunnllri"h~d the uJca that rht.. Bl;lck nat!\)!1 i:"l ;"t'·.!..: !1I,' l' IUi1~ " ... if livc~ in the heart: the\J~sjrt..· .l!~d \.l~nland 01 a )Copk ~l' ht. tr"to

1'-1:\1 ('( II ft"l (l] Tl '\ :-;P( )1--..1' of illlln:1I lights, 1hl' righl 0 alli"tkp,'ntlcl:l Hlad, Ilalll'l', TIll' IW'llal1 rrghh al'l'fill',! ;IHOlIl'h hil 11. ",,;eal, anu hioou.RighI, that hdlJn!; III the p<':'ll'k 1'1>:111' that lit (I'.l~'~l'I, (I:,,, or lacc lIlU~1 he all,,\\cu10 lie\t rm

jl;"l'l .\5 1\,II'(lJn J\VII'I, lil.' 'p"I-." "I uUli<.:'. -I" sland rirm and "Ilnul<lgcth..'r, Tn he pn:parl'd il r"...."a,v, III licit-no.! al'l' '::I-.c \\ illi 11)l'('l' that wliich isdenictl by ron,' .1:''':(1 11, w;" no slln,hi, C ",'die. I Ie diti," ,'Irinl-. rrUlll hi\ dilly to

fI::ICK P~'<'Jll' Whell llie "r<lg,g~C ;.:,)' t1in;':dlt ,lll,l l'\," ' 1,11/\ losl him hi, lite

II IS W( )j{TII '\tJ'l I '\t. ''''''lh,'' I ~L:,'ollll" n!>'l',"llliol1s: Ih:llupprl" .... ,itlT! nftcl1 .ilrk" ,"v !lIrn!l1.~ It ... "illl:l1'\ ~Pl:till.... t t .H... h nthLi in .... tc.:ad of again;"1 Ih('((HnJ1HFl (,1~1~I'1\. 'lIlt, t,.ind tlt l' :l".h!,~·d . :cli.I1~, '!'-- h"tilt'r jl h~ '('lr-h:L[r~d or

I l~c(lil1.e 1il'I1.!,!lbj)r~ :111.,' ...... f1l11nllIJl'· " .... tr.tJi t':- V \ lllo'cd ((I \'r;!~ll \!akon1 '\1000 lor.

!'Ol);\ Y''; 11 IBI II, 'I' "ll Ff" a,'" I·. ,'',It'\' 0' \I:llcnm X m'l'c,,~it:ttc, "rC'n';\\l't! cOllll11itnlt'llt i\ ,','nun,tI11l'lll to re'pl'cing "I'd ucrcl1dillg the lives or theopprl'ss<.:U a" the 'I" ar ot thc n:!Ii/ln i, '!larpl'I1l'l!

FEELING THE

(excerpts j7'O/II a perso//a! !eftel)

REMEMBER EUGENE DEBS? One of the first sucialists I e\'er re:ld. Iused to quole him in letters fmOl the Tennes.ee joilll2 -- "while there is a lower class, Iam in it; while there is a criminal elemelll, I am of it; and while there is a soul in prisun,I am nOt free". I don't knOll; if he wrote this hefure or after his bit in Atlanta, but italways impressed me. Enough so 1 named a cat after him.

I DON'T THI K PRISONERS or their slruggle n cds or should beromanticized, but what phase have we emered \\ hen the liberals/left, including thathighly suspect group "progressives", make no mention of prisons? They write enoughabout police and police repression--check that--!,ut enough, but more than about prisons,and then let it die on the vine as if hunwnity l"<~ase.· to ex!>t after booking. I dun't thinkthe lack of consciousness problem is :0 much lhat preduminantly \\ hile, middle classleftist liberals have never experienced prison: it\ more a case of they're not beingpersonally or politically thre:ltened by it. They go on allli on about Big Brother, civilrights violations, suppression of dissent, elc.--bul they all g" past "Go" and collect their$200. They can play monopoly like the rid] folk:, but wilhoUI a "Gel Out Of Jail Free"card. 111at wasn't the case in the past.

AT THE TURN Of' the century through the :!O's, radicals, Wobhlies,immigrants, union organizers and pacifists felt the crunch. Cumlllunists and unionists illthe 30's. Reds in the 50's. Enough radicals and mililants in the 6(}"s and 70'.' to make

2 After Ray returned from Viet Nam, his antiwar activism gothim set up for a pot sale. He spent 3 years ill a Tennesseeprison,

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•

•

I'c'"plc tltilli-.. 11I;Ic:k,- r;"It<:al ;tlll! illite: c. he:'\lId I :ltil1"'/'''. ,n the I'hi tn, decldc"

'\l"," 1t)1l~ hL'CI1 ht..'ld 111 lite rL'\'olving door.

•

. O\vllt:l{1 DO) (lLJ CO;-"H ul' a,!ai'bl tltc' plmer of tlte law and nakedfore.: '" it\ wielded in pri,o,l. J\ virtual la\'olTac~ Ih <:tlIl'Ollied in tit ... nth al11endmentto the Conltillltion. \'ve Itave barely anv righi' the Slalc i, boulld to rcspc<:!. If the Leftdid ha\'e any cOJN:iousncss ahout tlte is. ut'-·and SOI11t' do--tltev're not likely to act on itht'cau'", thcy lack the strength and re,ources to wage a vigorr,u, 'Lruggle.

J: 1 TIIEIR PURLICATIONS, leftists "I'ten refer to the risk Ill' imprisonment orbodily harm oecau,e of their activities, but I "onJer how l1l<!ny would rel11ain active ifthe~ seriotlsh thought their action, carried lltt' risk of imprisonment or hodily harll!,Pri'lJl1cr' oflen mirror image what is happening in the str'cl. With the exception of"crimltlal justicc" issues, the genera! level of political consc:iousne.s amung pri,oner islow. rhey are ripe ror n<."w ideas and alternaLi\'t's but don't set' tl1l'l11. Wltic:h i,under'landable. given thal tltne arc' no organi/L:d 1ll00'<:niCIllS pl-e'L:nling any offering...Thi .. is a period 01' nL:ar total abandonment o. prisoners. C'O'nhitw thal with theconditions of ~urvival and il tend, to orecd an unhl:~dth\ eynid,m.

. 1J\NY MAr~IO. ' PR[S():\FI~::' hal'e heen ;n\'ol\'L:u ;n individual andgroup act~ of resist;lI1ce over the years. h,r their crfort~ the~ 'vc bec'n subjected to

hcatings. torturL:, ,o!ltary, mort' till1c--the wbole l) yards. The)' sec nothing positivecoming out or any of il exccpt maintaining their integrity while: staring down the worstabu,e" They gel no ,uprort outside, and solidarit)' is lacking in,ilk. Their hopes bingeon one more crack at the streets. 0ne more pa~lla. ur payhack. and

a period of total abandonment

Ilell has no fury like thaI 01 an c'nr;lt:ed ex-coll\'ic!. ror :; years now. rri'oners have been,,'ntenccd under tl e !lew gUlddillL:' of m:tl1llallV\' lL:rllt, wilh Illl parole. Young dudes ilrccoming in with hig time. You CIUJ'L tlo lillle on the i'bl;dllnenl plan aIlYlllore·-lhe,emences arc too stcep, with no parok reka ..c. Y,)u.d" more lhan a couple hilS antiyour en:ire lik is gone. So the prevailing allitudc' i, that next lime \lhy showcon,ideralion for "ilne"es or the cops incl'. OIl'rL: cuming bad. for 20 to :;0 after doing10 or l'i?

THE PREV;\ILI,'(i I:-"FORM;\TIONI\I exch;'n!'c is based on methods ofcrimin;d operalion, So whde a towlly :cammed and unsuspecting oul takes refllgL: in thefaci that 1.2 million women and men arL: lu 'kt'd awav. lhe 'lc' 'I,:c'!lcr;nion is slipping up

."5

•

\./

III tlk'ir hat'k Jllor. and e'-nll" COllIe llut Ill' thei, ,.\\"n frightful ~ituation without a pot topi" in and n<> prospects. The reaxon there \\"a, '''eh a I<:vel of political Clllbciousncss anua~ti\ i1~ anlong pri~nncr, (If :111 l".HIi<:r c.:ra i hcc.:ause th~~' n:nect~d \~ hat \Va. happeningin the trcel. llf thi, cllulllry :It the tillle. Pri,on <"llllJiliun, arc ,uch that cllnfrontationsallu rehellion' will cnntilllle regaruk,~ Ill' lhl' l',i,tCIKe of extern:d movements. A feweven think thai prisoner. will hegin tn ut:lllon,tr:lle Illort: politit:al will alld uirection thanWl' 't'e on the :tree . It's po"ille--bllt the oud, arc against ,uch a phenomenon,

THE LOWEST COMMON DENOMIl':i\TOR with u'. without anysignificant outside support, i~ how much suffering and bleeding will we endure hefore wearc willing and able to sacrifice even more fur a chance to turn the situation aruund. Orhas the preselll situation becollle a permanent and c,panding. pan of a larger nightmarewe are all gelling sucked into?

M:uion Prison, 7/18/92

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•

ES FROMDOWN UNDER

(excerpt from a personal letter)

I FIRST SI\ W the film Titicut Foliies at a clandestine viewing decades ago.Now I get to see it again on PBS from inside a cage. Bridgewater was/is a dumpingground for the "criminally insane" in Massachusets. w.h~ch also served/serves as a place tosend sane prisoners for "observation". Many a Walpole prisoner has passed throughBridgewater. Everyone hates it except the parasites thaI make a living off the miserythere. And as the film depicts. Bridgewalers' staff is loonier than its inmates. And morecruel. .

PBS WAS ABLE to show Titicul Follies because a court reversed a 25year ban on public showing of the film. In 1967 a Slate judge in Massachusetts ruled thatpublic showings would violate the privacy righl~ of the prisuners in the film.

LIKE HE GAVE' A SHlT about prisoners' privacy rights. We have none.Any guard that looks up your ass, forces a finger W:lve, or smashes you across the neckwith a club can tell you lhat. No--the judge was protecting the state from the light oftruth. He disappeared the prisoners and restrained them with nightmares and endlessabuses. 1967-When they were lying about Viet Nam. hiding what we were not to see,while sending us there to die, Bridgewater and sores like it functioned as America's tigercages.

THE DAY BEFORE Titicul Follies aired. Marion's guards held aninformalional pickel. Ostensibly they were protesting lhe recenl firing of a guard whohad opened the grille and walked on the lier when one of the cells was still open (unlike

57

in othcr joint. a \!:.Iriun pri,oElcr i, Ell' er flut of hi. cell unlc,. there', a harrier hetweenhim and I!lJ:Jrd, llr hc', j" chailb) Thc gllarth want it lhi, \lay hut \\cre trying to getIhc,r "v,; rein. 1:lled hccau,<' Ihc :ulnlini,trauoEl coull! not produce a y,-,;{{cn policylIUndalll1t: hi' I'f'l\edure.

" TEClI:-:ICALlTY. h<'C<Hl" the 10ck-do\l11 policy as it's enforced is NOcOl1la<'l What the I(uard, ha\ e now dune i lO turn this incident around and demand thehiring I,f more gU3~ds and even tighter security policies. Overworked and understaffed,they say. although Marion is the ol1ly federal prison that has more guards than prisoners.And the fucking joint is locked-down.

THEY WANT MORE GUARDS to escort us (e.g. to the yard) eventhough we're all in restraints with one guard on each individual prisoner, holding on thecuffs which are behind our backs, armed with clubs, with an additional 2 guards incharge of the movement escort, all under video surveillance from the control booth.While picketing, they engaged in a little emotional hlackmail with signs reading "NOOHIOS" (referring to the Lucasville rebellion).

THE DAY FOLLOWING Titicut Follies, a prisoner's body was found inH-Block. A "suspected" suicide. Everyone in these cages has reason enough to killthemselves but none of us accept the official version either. It's too easy for them to killyou.

NO FURTHER INFORMATION is coming out of Lucasville prison.There was precious linle throughout the rebellion. It took over 20 years to get the AtticaBrothers civil rights case to trial--not exactly a deterrent to guards bent by hatred ofprisoners, racism and the cloak of immunity. That's why they were attacked to beginwith. Listening to a description of the Lucasville area and population, it sounds like closeto a carbon copy of Marion/Southern Illinois. Predominantly white, predominantly racist,and predominantly unemployed if they weren't sucking off the world's largest prisonsystem.

WHEN LUCASVILLE JUMPED OFF, there were also confrontations atthe Michigan State Prison at Jackson, and Bernard State Prison in Illinois. A few weeksprior to Lucasville. the New Bedford Home of Corrections (Mass.) was burned to theground by prisoners. It's ironic that guards set the spark by searching and seizingprisoners' reading material, stating that too much paper was a fire hazard.

SEVERAL COUNTIES in Southern Illinois are in competition with eachother for dibs on a proposed control unit prison that the governor and state legislaturehave yet to approve. They're like hungry pups trying to push out the weaker ones for abetter grip on the appropriations tit. I hope they feed themselves into a coronary.Recently, the state opened the Big Muddy medium security prison in this area--more jobsnow that most mining is dead and manufacturing has moved on to even poorer areas.

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DOWN UNDER

(excerpt from a personal letter)

T FIRST SAW the film Titicut Follies at a clandestine viewing decades ago.Now I get to see it again on PBS from inside a cage. Bridgewater was/is a dumpingground for the "criminally insane" in Massach,usets, w,bich also served/serves as a place tosend s.ane prisoners for "observation". Many a Walpole prisoner, has passed throughBridgewater, Everyone hates it except the parasites that make a living off tbe misery.there, And as the film depicts, Bridgewaters' staff is loonier than its inmates. And morecruel. '

PBS WAS ABLE to show Titicut Follies because a court reversed a 25year ban on public showing of the film, In 1967 a state judge in Massachusetts ruled thatpublic showings would violate the privacy rights of the prisoners in the film.

,

LIKE HE GAVE A SHIT about prisoners' privacy rights. We have none.Any guard that looks up your ass, forces a finger wave,. or slTI:lshes you across the neckwith a club can tell you that. No--the judge was protecting the state from the light oftruth. He disappeared the prisoners and restrained them with nightmares and endlessabuses. 1967-Wnen they were lying about Viet NalTI, hiding what we were not to see,while sending us there to die, Bridgewater and sores like it functioned as America's tigercages.

THE DAY BEFORE Tilicut Follies aired, Marion's guards held aninformational picket. Ostensibly they were protesting the recent firing of a guard whohad opened the grille and walked 01] the tier when one of the cdls was still open (unlike

57

in OIilt:r joint,. a ~1arilln pri'oner i, ne\er nut of hi, cell unk" there\ a harrier hetweenhim and guard;, In he', ;n ch:,i",) 'n,e guard, "ant it thi, "ay hut "cre trying to gettheir 0'" II rein'l:llcd hec:lll'<' lhe admlni,tr:,tion coull! lUll pruduce a ,,-riflc/I policymandal1l1~ hi, prn\<'llure.

,\ TECJI:-;IC/\LrJ Y. h,'(;Hl,e lhe lock-l.h""n policy as it's enforced is NOconlact. What the '(uard, hate now done i, 10 turn this incident around and demand thehiring (If nwre gua~ds and even tighter security policies. Overworked and understaffed,they say. although :'1arion is the only federal prison that has more guards than prisoners,And the fucking joint is locked-down',

THEY WANT MORE GUARDS to escort us (e.g. to the yard) eventhough we're all in restraints with one guard on each individual prisoner, holding on thecuffs which are behind our backs, armed with clubs, with an additional 2 guards incharge of the movement escort, all under video surveillance from the control booth.While picketing, they engaged in a little emotional hlackmail with signs reading "NOOHIOS" (referring to the Lucasville rebellion).

THE DAY FOLLOWING Titicut Follies, a prisoner's body was found inH-Block. A "suspected" suicide. Everyone in these cages has reason enough to killthemselves but none of us accept the official version either. It's too easy for them to killyou.

NO FURTHER INFORMATION is coming out of Lucasville prison.There wa, preciOtls tinle throughout the rebellion. It took over 20 years to get the AtticaBrothers civil rights case to trial--not exactly a deterrent to guards bent by hatred ofprisoners, racism and the cloak of immunity. That's why they were attacked to beginwith. Listening to a description of the Lucasville area and population, it sounds like closeto a carbon copy of Marion/Southern Illinois. Predominantly while, predominantly racist,and predominantly unemployed if they weren't sucking off the world's largest prisonsystem.

WHEN LUCASVILLE JUMPED OFF, there were also confrontations atthe Michigan State Prison at Jackson, and Bernard State Prison in Illinois. A few weeksprior to Lucasville. the New Bedford Home of Corrections (Mass.) was burned to theground by prisoners. It's ironic that guards set the spark by searching and seizingprisoners' reading material, stating that too much paper was a fire hazard.

SEVERAL COUNTIES in Southern Illinois are in competition with eachother for dibs on a proposed control unit prison that the governor and state legislaturehave yet to approve. They're like hungry pups trying to push out the weaker ones for abetter grip on the appropriations tit. I hope they feed themselves into a coronary.Recently, the state opened the Big Muddy medium security prison in this area--more jobsnow that most mining is dead and manufacturing has moved on to even poorer areas.

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Part of the power elite and various overseers showed up for the ceremonies. The state'sAllorney General--Black. TIle state's Commissioner of Corrections--Black. And theprison's ncw warden--a Black woman. This is called collusion within the framework ofinternal colonialism.

AND LEST WE FORGET: 47 hangings in Mississippi jails and prisons inthe past 5 years, and the widespread use of 4-point reo traint torture at Onondaga Countyjail in New York. Others too numerous to mention or which have not found their wayinto the media.

DATELINE: WACO. A lone man stands in front of a tank nearTienneman Square and it's depicted in the U.S. media as the embodiment of a buddingdemocracy. Send a gas-spewing tank crashing through the wall of a home in which 25children are huddled. and it's referred to us a~ defending dcmocratic values. Next timewe want to incrementally increasc the pressure on Washington to respond to humanneeds, we should send a tank up to the White House lawn. See then if they can bringthemselves to refer to such action as an assau It.

WHEN J.I\.l\lET RENO accepted the position of U.S. Attorney General shesaid she would place special emphasis on children's welfare and civil rights. Then shethrows a barbeque where children are the main course. There's a history of it: tanks andtorches used against the Bonus Army encampment in DC; the atl ck and fiery death ofthose at Ludlow; the MOVE bombing--and others.

Then she throws a barbeque

where children are the main course,A NOTE on the "Hostage Rescue Team: Another misnomer. They are a

paramilitary assault group trained by the U.S. military. When the FBI thought they'dlocated me in Ohio in Nov. '84, the H.R.T. was brought in from Washington for whatthey deemed would be "a difficult and extremely dangerous operation". Referring to myarrest or death.

.ON A MOMENTS NOTICE, they brought with them specially armored

vehicles (they were flown in). Most were armed with MP-5 automatics (manufactured byH & K). They then joined forces with the Bos Luc FBI task force. There wereapproximately 50 at the point of arrest. Things hadn't gone as they'd planned so theconfrontation took place with us in the van.

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AS I'VE TOLD YOU BEFORE, my kith were with me at the time as wefaced down an enclosing circle of MP-5's, AR-IS's, and shotguns. I had a gun and a beadon the first agent exiting a vehicle to the front but when they aimed to shoot and yelledthey would, my only thought was 3 small coffins. There was no way the kids could have .escaped the kind of high-powered fire those agents were prepared to pump into me anadthe van. So I gave it up. If I hadn't it would have been a disaster.

LESS THREATENING: Take Our Daughters to Work Week sponsored bythe Ms. Foundation. The idea is to take your daughter to work so she can boost her self·esteem. It's been on the tube and in the papers--got a lot of attention. America wasturned overnight into a a country of middle class office workers and professionals. Therest of us disappeared as if we didn't have kids or little ones needing self-esteem. Isupposed that's 'cause of the reaction you're likely to get from a kid when you take theminto the bowels of a food packing plant, plastics factory, assembly line or textile mill.self-esteem at $6.00 an hour and no union? Lines waiting to snare your job? Non-existentor inefficient medical coverage? Might end up fielding a whole division of Red Stockings.

Mayday' 93

,

•

BY MATT OROENING

r-~-----------------------------,.;;

~

r---- ---. ---I~I ~s.,zoi~,'\f"~

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ocrOBER, 1993, marks the tenth year of collective punishment at theUnited States penitentiary, Marion. It marks a decade of lockdown, control unit regimesand government lies. No doubt the federal Bureau of Prisons will commemorate theevent by rolling out its propaganda wagoll, and indulging the public with some contrivedfantasy about the lockdown's purpose and effectiveness. Silently, they'll rejoice at thewell-orchestrated scam they've pulled off.

IN A SOCIETY that criminalizes poverty.and makes racism a redeemingsocial value, the Bureau of Prisons simply plugs its propaganda arm into a mass mediawho~e corporate ownership serves its own interesl~. There is significant poJiti~al capitalto be had by scapegoating the disenfranchised and deflecting the public's attention awayfrom the real issues which affect their quality of life.

MARION is the most written-about prison in the world. One of the battlelines drawn in October, 1983, wa~ for public opinion. The government is winning this'battle hands down. The Bureau of Prisons utilizes a highly clfeciive public relationsstrategy which revolves around the agiprop slogan "the worst of the worse" to describeMarion prisoners. It is a soundbite which condenses "nigger, spic, white trash, jobless,homeless, useless underclass" into one dehumanizing phr<!-Se. Dehumanizing a populationwith language is a prelude to dehumanizing them with force.

THE BUREAU OF PRISON'S STATEMENT IS FALSE, unless the "theworst" refers to rebels, dissenters, revolutionaries, jailhouse lawyers, group members andothers whose beliefs and integrity the Bureau of Prisons wants to crush. It is false whenone examines who is sent to Marion, and wily they're here. Certainly there areexceptions, but those exceptions don't warrant the use of collective punishment.Additionally, I've not met a convicted felon whose misdeeds were in any way comparableto the massive killing of civilians perpetrated by the likes of Nixon, Reagan. Bush. et al.No one here has been col1\~cted of crimes against humanity in the court of world opinion.

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THE "WORST OF THE WORSE" has no meaning outside the realm ofpropaganda because any prisoner can be sent to Marion at any time, for any reason,without due process of law. In Bureau of Prisons parlance, dissent and rebellion are"management problems· to be suppressed. What it feeds the public is designed to securesupport for such schemes.

EFFECTIVE PROPAGANDA diverts people from thinking and acting notonly on prison issues, but also on the problems that led to the construction of theAmerican gulag: poverty, racism and injustice stemming from an unbridled capitalismthat diminishes the humanity of its victims. Marion is but one more satellite in the ever­expanding concentric circles of oppression and violence that are consuming society. Thisis good news for prison and related bureaucracies. Instead of being hung ou! to dry.these parasitic purveyors of misery are relishing their careers. fattening their wallets andpassing themselves off as guardians of the sliced white bread culture.

• • • language ... a prelude to dehumanizingwith force . ..

IN A RECENT London Sunday Times article on Marion, a denizen of the localcommunity was quoted as saying that Marion prisoners should be taken out and shot aspart of the deficit reduction plan. This citizen comes from the same pool from which theBureau of Prisons recruits its guards. Bleak economic realities feed such fascistsentiments. Marion's guards are the descendants of once-proud coal miners and factoryworkers--many unionized. But when the mines and plants closed they were leftfloundering on their own. Their response is to board the nation and state's higgestgrowth industry-human chattel.

ILUNOIS RECENTLY APPROVED construction of another state controlunit prison. Before the ink was dry on the legislation. the economically depressedcounties of southern Illinois were unabashedly begging for the prison to be located ontheir turf. One state legislature stated there was so much unemployment in his county, "itwould be a crime" not to locate the prison there. A crime not to build a control unitprison in an area already saturated with them. "Worst of the worse" means nothing tothese people. All they want are warm bodies to feed on. They don't much care wherethey come from.

ONE OF THE MOST SIGNIFICANT REVERBERATIONS of theMarion lockdown is the .subsequent proliferation of control unit prisons throughout thecountry. Thirty eight, according to a recent Human Rights Watch report, which also

62

documents the inherent abuses. This proliferation is part and parcel of the rapidexpansion of the entire prison system. Marion was the flagship, but no longer theexception.

EVEN A RELATIVELY SMALL STATE like Maine has opened acontrol unit for 100 prisoners at an initial cost of $16 million. Already the state isseeking to double the size of the prison. Maine's situation somewhat reflects what'shappening nationwide. The state spent money it could not afford to build a control unitprison it does not need. Concurrently, the state cut rehab programs at the YouthReformatory and slashed programs to Aid to Families with Dependent Childrcn ($418 amonth for a parent with 2 children). By gouging the needs of children, the state insured asteady supply of youthful offenders to fill its control unit and other cells well into thenext generation. New York and Florida have come up with their own creative fraud bydiverting funds initially allocated for the homeless and social welfare programs, to fundprison construction and operations.

PROPAGANDA TIlATPROMOTES CONTROL'UNITS as effectiveagainst crime--ln and out of prison--perpetrates a cruel hoax on an unsuspecting and toooften gullible public. Like most government bureaucracies, the Bureau of Prisons hidesthe cost overruns from a public who will foot the bill. In 'real terms, "more bang for the:buck is quickly eroding their false sense of security.

WHEN MEN AND WOMEN ARE LOCKED in small cells 22-23 hours aday, with little human contact, in a violent environment devoid of respect for the humanspirit, there is a steep cost not.l.imited to prisoners or dollars. Certainly the prisonerssuffer. And much of it not played out in violent prison in.cidents is internalized in anorganic time capsule. Eventually, they carry the years of abuse and neglect right onthrough their release dates, which is when it's all brought home. A prisoner doesn'tseparate him/herself from the prison experience anymore than soldiers separatethemselves from the wars they live through. Neither does the media, which puts its ownspin on the term "ex-convict" to mean depraved and violent.

IF PRISONERS NEVER RETURNED to their neighborhoods andcommunities--or anyone elsc's--the public might take some perverted comfort in neverseeing them again. But this doesn't happen. Even the most extensive prison sy tem in theworld can't keep millions of people locked up forever. While some formerprisoners salvage their lives and spare others--entirely through their own efforts--themajority proceed to engage in both self-destructive behavior and crime aimed at the livesand property of others. Life s agenda is reduced primarily to one more paycheck orpayback.

TIlOSE WHO BECOME VICTIMIZED by the alumni of America'sprisons need ask themselves the following: will the billions spent on prison hardware andsubsidizing the welfare payments of prisoncrats buy. back the 10$t lives of those they

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thought they were pro ccting with their tax dollars? It won't. l11e funds that could havebeen invested in human services and community development were pissed away downbottomless sinkhole of violence, heartache and the illusion thai repression will providesecurity,

11JE MISNAMED CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM chums out anappalling casualty rate, There al e now almost one million children under the age of 18who have one or both parents in prison. One in four young black men is in prison orunder police "supervision". More Latinos' than ever before are locked up. More womenand children. More of everyone whose lives are plagued by poverty and racism. Theproliferation of control unit prisons represents one response of wealth and power to theagony of the oppressed.

All they want are warm bodies to feed on.

They don't much care where they come from.

EARLY IN THE LOCKDOWN, Marion prisoners put up a sliff resistance.Whether in this prison or elsewhere, the majority have been subjected to police assaults,beatings, gas, clubs, prolonged restraints, drugs, anal probes, stun guns, humiliations,degradations, harassment, psychological rape and mistreatment of all sorts.

THE U.S. CALLS THIS TORTURE when referring to other governments.It's not like we haven't been there. Little positive has come of it other than maintainingour personal integrity. Earlier in the lockdown we had important outside support. Nowthat most of this support has worn out, a cloud of pessimism, if not cynicism, descendsover. the entombed.

DURING THE 10 YEAR REIGN of the Marion lockdown, prisoners haveattempted to redress their grievances through the federal courts. They got nothing but ajudge's spiteful decision that sordid and horrid conditions do not violate constitutionalrights, The many prisoners who testified about beatings and other rights violations weredismissed as liars (court tend to credit prisoners' testimony only when they testify for thegovernment). Congressional subcommittee hearings did little besides enter Marion'sdevastation into the public record.

THIS ISN'T TO SAY that judicial and legislative efforts should beabandoned. There is pending litigation by control unit prisoners in other districts that

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may produce different results. And various state legislatures may respond differently totheir constituents' concerns. Yet given the prevailing political climate and theentrenchment of the Marion model, little is likely to come from this approach other thana belated civics lesson.

ll-1E BUREAU OF PRISONS cannot continuously apply heat to Marionwithout allowing some steam to escape, unless they want the place to blow up. TheBureau of Prisons' efforts to contain organized resistance and picking off individualefforts is rooted primarily in the control unit regimen: isolation, separation. controlledmovement in restraints, limited communication and the selective use of violence.

an ... environment devoid of respect. for the. human spirit ...

BUT mERE IS MORE. The answer also lies in the Bureau of Prisons'arbitrary use of control mechanisms that begin with who is sent to Marion. and whythey're singled out. The process continues--more arbitrarily--in determining who leavesMarion. and when. Clear conduct (no disciplinary infractions) alone will not get aprisoner out of Marion. Some will leave in the minimum 2 1/2 years; some in 5 or 10;some appear branded not to leave at all. Some turnover is necessary because the 375capacity must have room to warehouse new arrivals, including recidivists.

NO ONE CAN FAULT A PRISONER for wanting to be on that bus outof Marion. However, the emphasis on catching that bus in the 2 1/2 year mlnimum hasevolved into the most viable method for the majority of prisoners to escape Marion'sclutches. In tum, this has led to individual ·programming" rather than a more collectiveeffort to end the lockdown. The lack of outside support reinforces the view that each ofus is on his own.

AS mE POLmCAL RESOURCES for prisoners have waned, the federalgovernment has continued to beef up its repressive capacity. A new control unit prison isbeing built in Florence CO, which will replace Marion in 1994. The addition of 200 cellsover Marion's capacity underscores the failure of Marion's lockdown to reduce violenceand rebellion in the federal prison system and states which tap into it. Florence's 550permanently locked down cells await those who will continue to refuse and resist, as wellas those caught up in the spiral of crime that prisons produce. Conditions at Florence

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promise to be considerably worse with more emphasi. placed on deeper imlation.

IT'S 'OT EASY TO CHART a future course from inside. Doing time inthese joints is like walking a mine field. The Florence prison will present new challengesand other control units are cutting their teeth. We know from Attica. Lucawille. and ahundred other rebellion~. both organized and spontaneous. that stiff resistance willcontinue. Some of it will be violent. We also know that as captive slaves we areextremely vulnerable to offensive violence and retribution by the guards. For this rea~on.

some matters are best left 0 c1dnde tine maneuvers.

What's dear to me now and has been since I first did time in '69-71 is thatno matter how much litigation and legislation is filed and defiled, the road to building aprisoners' movement is paved with solidarity. Irrespective of individual differences andgroup affiliations. we all have a common bond on which to stand together. Solidarity isour greatest weapon. bar none. Additionally. out. ide suppprr is critical. A necessarylifeline involves family. friends. professionals, and political activists. We urgently need astronger voice. And everyone--inside and out of prison walls--can help build it.

ULI1MATELY, control units like Marion must be shut down. But in themeantime, attitudes with a political consciousness; adoption and application of theUnited Nations' Standard Minimum Rules for the treatment of Prisoners; outsideobservers--taken together, can open a new front in the struggle for justice.

SeptemlX'r, 1993

(,

""Protest" 1S when I say: I no. longer acceptthis or that th1ng. "Resistance" 1S when Isee to it that that which I no longer acceptno longer occurs."----- Ulr1ke Mlenhoff,murde:.:-ed by west Ge...rrnan prison guards.

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WHEN I WAS TRANSFERRED to the U.S. penitentiary in Marion,Illinois in December, 1989, Panama was being invaded by U.S. forces. Amidst thewholesale destruction, mass graves, and lies by U.S. politicians and military leaders wasan awesome display of American firepower designed to impose its wiU on yet anotherCentral American nation. Weapons systems from land, sea, and air were utilized, alongwith the basic M16 to kill whoever stood in the line of fire. Whether technologicallyadvanced or as simpre as a grenade, this war materiel 'is made in the O.S.A--some of itby federal prisoners.

THE FEDERAL PRISON INDUSTRIES, INC. (UNICOR) is one of themanufacturers that supplies military equipment to the bloated U.S. war machine.UNICOR has served this function since 1934 under contract to the War Department,now known euphemistically as the Department of Defense. The Federal Bureau ofPrison. (BoP) boaSts that the slave labor of prisoners, under hazardous conditions, andat an entry level wage of 23 cents an hour has made and continues to make significantcontributions towards supplying the military's needs. It also boasts of using UNICOR tocontrol prisoners within its vastly overcrowded system.

UNICOR'S MIUTARY PRODUCTION ranges from TOW and othermissile cables, munitions components, communications equipment, bomb parts, engineoverhauls, uniform sewing, etc. In its brochures, the BoP proudly displays photographs ofprisoners working hard producing this materiel. As a Viet Nam veteran, I wasparticularly struck by a photo of Federal prisoners producing equipment destined forViet Nam. Unlike most prisoners, I got to see with my own eyes the lethal effect of theend product.

IT IS TIlE PRIORITY OF UNICOR to provide for the military's needs,whether it was during the Korean War when 80% of UNICoR sales went to the military,or the Gulf War when prisoners were pressed into overtime. In fact, the military has itsown representative on UNICOR's Board of Directors to advise on how to better harness

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prison labor for military purposes.

BEING CONTRACTED to the War Department means supplying morethan just U.S. forces. It means that this military equipment is rerouted by the U.S. to itsclient states--from Israel to Indonesia--and into the hands of the world's most degenerateand bloodthirsty regimes. In cases like EI Salvador, the supplies were uscd to kill their ­own people.

USP-MARION IS A CONTROL UNIT prison where abuse of prisoners iswell documented by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, CongressionalCommittee hearings, and other sources. In the never-ending lockdown there is little toengage the intellect, an abysmal lack of stimulation and recreation, and no work withwhich to labor. With one exception. The prison administration has designed a schemewhereby prisoners deemed suitable mu t enter a period of involuntary servitude in thc"pre-transfer" unit before approval is granted for transfer (0 a less hmtal prison. It is ascheme the administration exploits to the hilt because they understand that Marionprisoners are desperate to leave iLs punishment cells, isolation, and tomb-like conditions.

WHILE ALL FEDERAL PRISONERS are required to work, they are notrequired to work UNICOR, though 26% do so. Most prisoners opt to work in otherareas such as food service or maintenance, or pursue the very limited educational orvocational programs available. USP-Marion is the single exception in the Federal prisonsystem because it mandates that prisoners work UNICOR as a condition of transfer.They only work at Marion's UNICOR is military production.

MARION'S OPERATION is an extension of a larger operation at thefederal prison in Lexington, Kentucky, so its produ<,tion and profit figures are notindividually computed. In a typical year, Lexington fills 800-1200 orders for the militmy,totalling $12 million.

THE BUREAU OF PRISONS has parried Frecdom of Information Actrequests to disclose detailed information about war production at Marion. However, thismuch is known: UNICOR Marion produces electronics communication cables which itsells to the War Department. These cables are used in various ground vehicles, such astanks·and Armored Personnel Carriers, and production line supervisors have braggedthat the cables are used in helicopters. During the Gulf War, the prisoners workingUNICOR Marion were compelled to do overtime production. Whatever its finitespecifics, the military application of the electronics cables is essential to many weaponssystems and platforms.

IN MODERN WARFARE, the term "military hardware" encompassesadvanced weapons systems in which electronics often provide a more destructive functionthan the soldiers' rifles. During the U.S. war on Iraq, for example. bombardment byelectronically-enhanced munitions on water treatment plants spreads a bacteriological

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assault on all those people whose lives depend on that water. According to the NewEngland Journal of Medicine, 46,900 Iraqi children died in the first seven months-of1991 as a result of U.S. attacks on the country!s infrastructure. Besides pilots andgunners who never see their victims, what's used to coordinate and propel massdestruction are the essential components of war, right down to the vital electronics andcommunication cables. War where the primary victims are civilian.

MILITARY EQUIPMENT is not produce,d in a vacuum. Those prisonerswho produced materiel during the Viet Nam war certainly knew there was a war raging.U.S. military conquests, past and present, are weB-documented. Perhaps less well known,though equally significant and weB-documented, is the Government's diversion ofweapons and military equipment to serial killers disguised as heads of state. UNICOR'smilitary production is part of an extensive pipeline that feeds the world's largest weaponexporter. .

. . .. sustenance obtained fromthe .spirit of resistance . · .

THE U.S. HAS MADE MUCH of China's use of prison labor for textileand other exports to the U.S. market. This is said to be a human rights abuse (i.e., that itcuts into the profits of U.S. corporations). The latest controversy revolved aroundChristmas tree ornaments manufactured by Chinese prisoners and exported to the U.S.To my- knowledge, no one has ever been killed by an attack from a Christmas treeornament, yet tons of military equipment for which U.S. prisoners have providedessential components are exported to bomb, 'blast, and terrorize their ultimate recipients.

FOR ME, being a revolutionary is the best way to live. Capture andimprisonment involve adjustments, but have not made me repentant for a lifetime ofanti-imperialism and struggle for justice. I was sent to Marion because of my politicalbeliefs and associations and will likely remain here unless I repudiate them, whiCh I willnot do. For me to engage in the production of military equipment as a condition fortransfer would be a repudiation of my political beliefs and principles. I will not do it.

REFUSING TO BE AN ACCOMPLlCE to U.S. militarism iS~dn actrooted deep in conscience and solidarity with those fighting U.S. imperialism and tryingto survive its onslaught. It is largely a symbolic act, yet necessary in confronting the

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collaborative nature of the system. During the recent attack against Lebanon by U.S.­supplied Israeli forces, every newspaper, magazine, and newsreel image of thesubsequent atrocities--hundreds killed and wounded; hundreds of thousands maderefugees--shows a steady movement of U.S.-manufactured weapons and equipment.

FOR THE POUTICAL PRISONER, putting principles into practice maybe largely symbolic, but demonstrating who we are and what we stand for is better thanaccommodating the government's agenda. It's important to remember that however smallthe resistance, someone always steps forward. The magnitude of crimes perpetuated bythe U.S. must be opposed, and this cannot be done without risk and sacrifice. The lackof an organized and wider resistance, though lamented, does not negate individual andsmall group ·action. History is replete with their examples and their corpses: from theWhite Rose activists who opposed fascism to the first and .few guerrillas of the SandinistaFront for National Liberation; from John Brown to the Industrial Workers of the Worldwho were sent to prison in droves; to Malcolm X and the indomitable George Jackson.For each of them there are the countless unnamed. The only reward short of victory isthe sustenance obtained from the spirit of resistance.

IT IS NOT a decision made without consequences. The Government's andthe BoP's iron fist gives no quarter to revolutionaries, rebels, and dissenters. It's part ofMarion's mission to destroy an individual's identity and community ties. One wardenstated that "the purpose of Marion is to control revolutionary attitudes in the prisonsystem and society at large." Rather overstated from a bureaucratic windbag, but the factremains that Marion is repression personified in a social experiment. Any outwardindication that a prisoner does not conform to Marion's dictates and he is condemned toincessant isolation. For the transgressor there will be no relief--no step closer to personalfreedom, no embrace of family and loved ones, no access to expanded work, education,or recreational opportunities, no shot at parole. Added to the burden is the public'sindifference and the response of the liberal left, who view prisoners with cO'ntempt andpolitical prisoners with hostility.

YET, THROUGH ALL THE YEARS and for all its evil ways, Marion hasnot destroyed me. All that call destroy me are guards, medical neglect, or a prisoner whodoesn't have his head screwed on right. There's an axiom here which declares that allwho enter these walls will eat much shit before leaving. It's inherent in Marion's mission.But eating shit is qualitatively different than producing war materiel that's used to putsomeone else in their grave. Someone else who also experiences a steady diet of

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oppression. Someone who does me no harm.

ITS BEEN 26 YEARS since I moved as soldier among the Vietnamesepeople, with rifle in hand, desecrating their land and seeing the ill, the infirm, thewounded and dying of those I was assigned to enlighten--or light up--about the virtues ofU.S. imperialism. After my discharge, I joined Viet Nam Veterans Against the War, agroup of conscience-ridden and war-weary vets who rejuvenated a lethargic anti-warmovement when the U.S. bombing of Viet Nam was at its extreme. Overlapping withViet Nam was the war in America's streets, fought in places like Newark, Detroit, PineRidge, Attica, Humboldt Park, East LA Within this war were internecine battlesprovoked by police spies and provocateurs and the rapid proliferation of snitches in adrug-saturated, me-first society. And beyond South East Asia. U.S. wars of interventionleft its bloody footprints in Chile, Argentina, Nicaragua, EI Salvador, Angola, SouthAfrica, Cuba and Puerto Rico, to name but a few. As in Viet Nam, the victims aremostly civilians.

ALWAYS AT WAR, as the world's policeman, this omnipotent andubiquitous United States military is charged with enforcing capitalism's code of conduct.Troops were mobilized during the rebellion in Los Angeles. Troops are deployed inSomalia where they now stand accused of human rights violations by the humanitarianrelief agencies and the Somali people themselves.

VIET NAM CHA.NGED my view of liberation to mean a constant andprotracted struggle against those forces that impose their will 011 others for power andprofit. Freedom is the ultimate expression and condition of a people who control theirown destiny. Once before, the government put me in uniform and used me for militarypurposes. Being young and naive was no excuse for my complicity. They'll not do itagain.

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ror more lnfonnat~on on i-iarlon and other Control Unlt prlsons:

"Dungeon Marlon: An Instrument of Oppresslon", Bill Dunne,Journal of Prlsoners on Prlsons, (VoI4, No2,19931 PO Box 60779Edmonton-,-p..Jbert.;l, Canada T6G 259

Camuttee To End The tllanon Lockdown, PO Box 578172,Chlcago, Ill, 60657-8172

Prlson CondlC1ons In 'Ihe US: A Human Rlghts watch ReportliumanRlghts \1atch~--48,) 5th live, New York, NY, 10017

Through The ~Jlre, a vldeo aoout "'OlTlen polltlcal prlsoners inthe Lexwgton ihgl1 Securlty Unlt. Nlna Rosenblum, producer.Na=ated by SUSFln Sarandon. Daedalus Productl:ons, 1990.Aval1dble ln some vldeo tores.

"The Crlme Of Punlshrr.ent J\t Pellcan Bay MaXlmLUlI Securlty Prlson",W1enst1en and Curmuns, Covcrt Actlon #45, SLlilmer, 1993. CA Quarterly,1500 Massachussetts Ave, NW, #732,--washlngton DC 20005

Pellcan Bay Informatlon Report 2489 M1SSlon St, San Franslsco, CA, 94110

"The Marl0nlzatJon Of Amencan Prlsons" IlTI1'-drlgeon, Vol 7, #4, Fall '92and "Infamous Punlshment: The Psychologlcal Consequences of Isolat1on",Haney, The Natlonal Pr1son Project Journal vol 8, #2, Sprlng '931875 Conncctlcut Ave NW, #410, \\lashlngton, DC, 20009

The Drumbeat: NevJS Fran Inslde, CFF Publ1cat10ns, PO Box 14075,Chlcago, IlT:", 60614-007S---

Prlson News Servlce, PO Box 5052, Statlon A, Toronto, Ontarlo,canada M5~1 1\14

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