Prisoners Write on October 22, 2013, National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation

October 14, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

The following are several of the letters we have received in response to our call to prisoners to write about October 22.

Resisting Police Brutality...and Fighting for Revolution—Nothing Less!

Corcoran CA, 10-2-13

On October 22: I think that it is imperative that people unite, protest, and resist the ever growing police brutality, repression and the criminalization of a generation. We have witnessed countless of times that people's resistance to the injustices perpetrated by this system (capitalism/imperialism) has been and is a crucial prerequisite to bringing those injustices to a halt. Whether it's been in eliminating the racist Jim Crow laws; to forcing the District Attorney to file charges against George Zimmerman for murdering Trayvon Martin. On the other hand, we have also witnessed that although those have been important victories, they have been partial victories, because we didn't rid ourselves of the system that produces all those injustices. We should have no illusions of getting justice from the "department of justice." The acquittal of George Zimmerman and the judge's decision in New York to throw out the indictment against Richard Haste (the cop who murdered Ramarley Graham) are prime examples of that.

In short, we should unite and resist the rampant police brutality and all other injustices that are perpetrated by this system daily, but we shouldn't be content with a reform here and there—we should aim and fight for a "Revolution—Nothing Less!"

In solidarity—always,
XXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Only one way out of this insanity"

TX, 9/30/2013

Greetings from behind the walls of concrete and bars of steel.

October 22, the 18th Annual National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality, Repression, and Criminalization of a Generation is upon us. Once again it is our duty to stand up and stand against injustice. Now if you don't stand for something then you'll fall for anything. And the only thing worth standing for in this day and age is Revolution. Not just any Revolution, but a Communist Revolution. Why a Communist Revolution, you ask? For that is the only way to overcome police brutality, repression, and the criminalization of our Black and Latino youth. If you are truly tired of being discriminated against because of who you love, if you are tired of police killing with impunity. If you are fighting for women's reproductive rights, and it seems like for every two steps forward you are knocked back five. I've got the answer for you!

Look, I can sit here and write a book on what's wrong with this system we are now existing under. But you all see it, hear about it, feel it, and hate it as much as I do. So, I chose to spend these few moments I have to talk about the solution to and an exit out of this madness. There is only one way out of this insanity and that is through Revolution. Get with Bob Avakian and open the BAsics, students get with your local Revolutionary Club to raise up, stand up and get with this Movement.

If you all crave redress, embrace this Revolution and settle for nothing less!

On October 22 when you all stand up and protest against the crimes of this system, I will be right there with all of you, in spirit. Because I truly believe if you are not part of the solution, then you must be part of the problem!

Get with this, BA is the way, the only way! Power to the People!

In The Struggle
XXXXXXXX

"Spectre of U.S. Imperialism is Haunting the Barrios and Ghettos throughout the U.S."

Crescent City CA, 10/2/2013

Today the spectre of U.S. Imperialism is haunting the Barrios and Ghettos throughout the U.S. and this is manifested in the over accumulation of prisoners and the phenomenon of control units, particularly the use of solitary confinement as a new tool.

Police brutality and criminalization are vestiges of state repression. But state repression derives from a class character. It is the ruling class exercising its power and dominance in Amerikkkan society. Although no speech or ballot box effort will completely solve our problem of police brutality, repression or other attacks, our efforts in protests serve to educate the people and raise awareness to these issues.

In my experience of growing up in the Chicano Barrios of San Jose, pig repression was just a way of life, it was considered normal to be 'stopped and frisked' whenever police seen you walking down the street. The pig was seen as just another gang which drove around and gang banged on the people, but they went past just having conflict with different hoods and even targeted honest hardworking people whose only crime is being Brown or Black.

Like most people in the U.S. prisons I grew up with the understanding that poor people were beaten or killed by the pig and that this was just the way it is. But this is not the way it is, it's the way it is right now.

The situation here in Pelican Bay Shu can also be looked at in the same fashion. Some think that this torture is the way it is, this is wrong. When we went on strike by the tens of thousands we showed that it is not ok the way it is and even though our actions were not meant to obtain complete victory where we totally transform the U.S. injustice system or shut down the Shu's etc we still underwent this strike. This was done of course to hopefully gain some small changes but more importantly to educate the people. Prisoners were the first ones to benefit from our protest and this was because people are affected by mass struggle. By 30,000 prisoners being mobilized this gave hands-on training in prison activism to thousands. This type of education was essential to our future struggles.

But the public was also educated on what is occurring to poor people in the U.S. prisons and this is what I believed may have threatened the state the most. The so called "land of the free" was now fronted off as being the land of the tortured.

The protests being prepared for Oct 22nd is important to once more educate the people who for whatever reason had previously been engaged in the dog eat dog world.

Ultimately police brutality and all forms of state repression - including the phenomenon of mass criminalization of millions are methods of controlling the oppressed who are currently under Amerikkkan domination. There is no 'PIC', financial incentives, although they do occur in some cases money making is not the primary cause of the criminalization of poor people in the U.S. in a nutshell, this mass criminalization is conducted in order to prevent the revolutionary elements from rising up and threatening the White ruling class.

What the state continues to get wrong is that this mass criminalization will not work because repression never works, it only fuels the resistance that will ultimately overturn the repression at hand. California's Shu's which were meant to destroy revolutionary prisoners are currently becoming liberation schools where the movements future cadre will surface.

New York's 'stop and frisk' which was meant to terrorize oppressed neighborhoods is now mobilizing these very areas in opposition to state repression. The cold blooded murders that occur in Brown and Black streets across the U.S. by police which are meant to terrorize the people are now mobilizing more and more from these communities in order to fight the power. We are building a momentum from the city streets to the Shu torture chambers, the front against oppression is everywhere! But at some point whether one is at some dead end job, on a college campus or in a prison cell we should understand that in Capitalist society anywhere on the planet, repression will continue in some form and only a socialist revolution would ever completely reverse this and put society on to a path that combats oppression in all areas.

Today's social conditions call for more methods of educating the people, we need to find more ways to reach those who have not been reached. Protests whether they are in prisons, jails, college campuses or on streets of cities are all sprouting from the tree of resistance. Often times when we look to history it was not the primary battles which propelled a revolution to victory, but those secondary struggles which became the decisive factor in determining what direction the pendulum swing.

La lucha Continua!

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