Needed: More Volunteers to Type Prisoners' Letters

The letters from prisoners that appear in Revolution newspaper—like the one below—are hand-written and mailed to the Prisoners Revolutionary Literature Fund (PRLF) or Revolution and then typed into electronic form by volunteers around the country. (For more letters go to www.prlf.org.) As dedicated and determined as these volunteers are, their efforts have been outstripped recently by the number of letters prisoners are writing—their thinking about fast-moving events in the world, about articles in Revolution newspaper or the new book BAsics, other books they are reading, insights on religion, culture and philosophy, about the prisoners' hunger strike in California, etc. You will be challenged, educated and inspired by these letters. To volunteer, email prlf_fund@yahoo.com and write in the subject line "Volunteer to type." No matter where you are, as long as you have access to the Internet, whether you can spend an hour every couple of weeks or more time, your stepping up to help will make a real difference.

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8-6-11

Greetings in solidarity! I've been receiving Revolution for a while now. I relish each new issue. Revolution newspaper is my weekly dose of revolutionary reality.

I am doing an AODA drug program here in the prison. Recently the subject of domestic violence, sex roles, and male dominance came up. After the group I was re-reading the June 12th issue of Revolution, when I came upon the center feature about "Rape and A World of Violent Domination." I knew I had to share it with the other prisoners in my AODA group.

I approached my AODA counselor with the idea of doing a presentation about "Male Domination and its effect on women and society." I was surprised when he was fully supportive and told me I could come up with the presentation and run the group for one day.

My presentation went great. I taped the feature from Revolution up on the board and presented to my fellow prisoners many ideas that they had never considered before; namely that "women are not breeders, lesser beings, or objects created for the sexual pleasure of men, that when women are held down all of humanity is held back." I could see the shock on the other men's faces as I shared the statistics "one in three women and girls is sexually abused or beaten in her lifetime" and all the others.

Men who only the day before had argued that male domination over women was "the natural order" suddenly began to see the horrors that these societal views force onto women and girls. The men I most suspected would dispute and argue against me began to ask questions like "what can I do to stop this violence against women?" and "How can I teach my young son to treat women as equals?"

I'm writing today to thank you from the bottom of my heart for Revolution newspaper. It gave me the opportunity to share Revolutionary thought and equality with others. It is a gift I was proud and touched to be able to share. I am happy I was able to share the truth of women's equality with these men. I truly believe it will change their lives and the lives of the women they encounter in the future in a profound manner.

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