Prisoners Write on:

Righteous Uprising of Protest...and the Need for an Actual Revolution

June 22, 2020 | revcom.us

 

Editor’s note: We at revcom.us periodically publish letters from prisoners on revolutionary theory and struggle, as well as other aspects of human experience and thought, including conditions and struggle within the prisons themselves. We appreciate and learn from all correspondence from the prisons. The opinions of the letters we publish are those of the writer and not necessarily those of Revcom.us. The following two letters speak to critically important trends and dynamics in the current political situation. In regard to some of the issues raised in the second letter in particular, we recommend the analysis in “Radical Change Is Coming: Will It Be Emancipating, or Enslaving: Revolutionary, or Reactionary?” and “Civil War and Revolution,” two recent articles by Bob Avakian.

“We don’t need reform... It’s time for Revolution—nothing less!”

A prisoner from Wisconsin

Here is an open letter to the PRLF [Prisoners Revolutionary Literature Fund] Family & those fighting for our Revolution:

School-to-prison pipeline is a reality, & a result of this capitalist-imperialist system. It’s inside this pipeline that we are brainwashed & conditioned on how to think & on how to not use critical thought. As victims of imperialism we are forced into rejecting the scientific method of understanding the world & the unnecessary suffering of millions around the globe.

The scientific approach & method is how we arrive at Truth. Truth is all that’s compatible & correspondent with Reality. Anything that collides with Reality is untruthful.

Here’s Reality: This sick pig suffocated George Floyd to death. Nine minutes of torture. “I can’t breathe.” And was there any sympathy from this pig? Any compassion? While 3 other pigs watched, this disgusting pig crucified George Floyd. That’s Reality!

It was on Emperor Obama’s watch that we held righteous protests & made the Declaration that Black, Brown, Indigenous Lives Matter. The system’s response: a reform that called for body cameras. What the fuck’s the purpose of these body cameras? They do not correspond to Reality, because state-sponsored police murder has become the status quo. And these murders are constantly caught on camera.

The pig who murdered George Floyd looked up at the camera. His eyes were full of pure impunity. He didn’t care about the camera, & he didn’t give a fuck about George Floyd’s life, just as this system doesn’t give a fuck about us. We are all suffocating: Unemployment, Mass Incarceration, Police Brutality & Murder, concentration camps on the border, Oppression based on Gender/Sexuality Orientation, Misogyny, & the Destruction of our Mother Earth. All of this is systematically suffocating us.

WE CAN’T BREATHE !!! Unnecessary suffering is our Reality. The media & politicians are calling for reform & legislation to defund the police. It’s too late for that! We don’t need reform. We need millions & millions to rise up in Righteous Rebellions & dismantle this Empire that hates us & does not value our humanity. It’s time for Revolution—nothing less!

The capitalist-imperialist structure conditions us to believe that the police’s mission is to protect & serve our communities. This is false. It does not correspond with Reality. The police are enforcers for Imperialism. There job is to terrorize & brutalize us. They are an integral component of the prison industrial complex. Fuck the police! Don’t be fooled by politicians’ promise of defunding an institution that has been militarized & and can kill us with no legal repercussions.

Bob Avakian, the architect of our New Communism, teaches us that only thru Revolution can we bring “an end to any way people anywhere are used, abused, & brutalized.” I stand in solidarity with this struggle to spread our mission of 5 stops, 2 Choices, & 6 points of Attention.

To the PRLF Family & supporters; I appreciate every one of you & the sacrifices you make. Every time I see somebody wearing the Revolution T-Shirt out there on the front lines on my TV Screen, I jump up & yell at the whole cell-block. I explain what that T-Shirt represents. It’s more than hope. It’s a call for genuine emancipation of humanity—nothing less.

Still Science, XXXXXXXX

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“Can the events taking place at the moment actually lead to something...?”

A prisoner from Texas

I know the questions might be asked. What is to be done? Can the events taking place at the moment actually lead to something OR will these mass protests fade away like all the other protest over the pigs killing yet another Black Person?

Well, it’s impossible to see into the future. But, when analyzing the situation, looking at the patterns and conditions of things it can help in determining what can happen next and what should be able to happen next. Of course all factors must be considered in determining what calculated steps to take to bring us even closer to Revolution.

First let’s look at the conditions. It is no small surprise that the murder of George Floyd by police has sparked such mass intense protest and uprising nationwide. Today’s conditions are different than the conditions of the past couple years. The U.S. hasn’t seen such a massive and intense uprising like the ones we are seeing today. Like I tell people here, yes the uprisings were sparked by yet another senseless murder of an unarmed and innocent Black man. And everyone is tired of that shit happening again and again. But it’s much deeper than that, it’s a lot of things that’s been buildings up to this. And we must consider the conditions in which all this is taking place. There’s a pro-fascist regime in power that (thankfully) a lot of people acknowledge as illegitimate. It’s election year so the ruling class is going through a Deep power struggle. All this is going on in the midst of a pandemic that’s devastated human life and has greatly devastated the economy. Unemployment is at an extreme high not seen since the Great Depression. The crisis further exposes the savage inequalities that capitalism causes and its inability to properly handle such crisis due to its dynamics and nature (of capitalism). The question of its legitimacy is being considered by more and more people.

Due to what I mentioned above, namely the deep crisis of capitalism at the moment. Two outcomes can come about. The fascists solidify their power and will be given free rein to further amp up repression due to the “crisis.” And will as a solution, will escalate agitation leading to war with its competition. Being that war is like an adrenaline shot to the capitalist system. You can see that in the U.S. further escalating tensions with China, going as far as blaming them for the pandemic and economic crisis it brought.

OR, the other outcome being that things will lead to a Revolution, or civil war with the goal or Revolution against fascist forces trying to gain back control. It all depends on our actions and what we do to prevent one outcome, the fascist one, and lead to the desired much needed outcome of a Communist Revolution.

What bothers me is that, although there’s grounds for a Revolutionary situation. Is there a Revolutionary people in their millions? One who is being led by a Communist Vanguard Party? If not, then there’s a problem there, one that has to be strived to fix before declaring a Revolutionary uprising.

Well one thing is for certain, these righteous uprisings will set the precedent for how election day would look like this year. What comes out of that is yet to be seen. But we must be ready to confront whatever comes next. Avoid mistaking one thing for another and stay firm in leading this to a Revolution. Just because it can’t happen as soon as we would hope doesn’t mean that the ground ain’t being prepared for it with all that’s been going on and with all the important work being done by Revolutionists such as y’all.

Last thing I wish to add before closing this letter is that my knowledge of what is really going on out there in the streets is limited because I’m in prison. All we get to see is the media painting the picture that everything going on is limited to the death of George Floyd. But as it’s been said before, “You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.”

Keep up the good fight, I’ll be writing as things further unfold.

XXXXXXXX

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