Working
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Working
ki to
t Extend
E t d Democracy
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to
t All 
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Volume
V l
Volume
3, N
3
Number
b 12
12

T

December
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D
December
b 2014
2014

LAST ISSUE?

his will be the last of my Editorial
Comments in the final edition of the
Rock newsletter for most readers.
Rock is dying, although not because of my
health. Most of you don’t pay at all or pay
too little. I have 61 paid subscriptions out
of a mailing list of 600. Me, Mark, and the
61 can no longer support the free rides.
Prisoners almost completely paid for
the costs of this newsletter for the first two
years of her existence. The third year, however, has been a complete and total financial disaster. I accept that my strident communism may be a large part of this decline.
Regardless of the reason, Mark and I have
both been rendered broke. Now, I leave remaining readers with a message.1

To Rights Conscious Prisoners:
Why did CDCR and the Governor refuse
to respond to the terrific amount of pressure
from both the inside and the outside to meet
the five core demands? I mean even the Association of Catholic Bishops pleaded in
support of the cause of prisoners on hunger
strike. Here’s why. What prisoncrats and
guards fear most of all, more than anything
else, is something called dual power. Dual
power means prisoners have a say in the
running of the prisons. And why not?
A democratically elected organization
of prisoners could not do a worse job than
CDCR, with its seventy percent failure rate,
its ongoing torture programs, and CDCR’s
treating human beings as less than animals
and doing so in conditions that shock the
conscience, and at a cost of billions of dollars a year.
1. Rock may come out for everyone again when prisoners have donated the money to pay for it ($500).
Mark and I might put out occasional issues at our
expense if there is a significant struggle taking place.

Dual power is a revolutionary idea because, well, because it is a step toward full
power. I’ll say this over and over again,
power is not something that can be handed
to you on a silver platter. It is something
that must be struggled for. And in the process of that struggle you learn how to wield
power, how to develop the responsibility
that comes with having power. To change
your situation, your status as a slave, you
need only exercise responsibility. The more
collective responsibility you exercise the
more power you’ll gain.
Try to envision a future in which prisoners themselves allocate fiscal resources,
maintain order, decide who is ready to go
home, and set standards for living conditions on the inside, and you are paid a full
salary for doing this work. The ultimate
goal is to eliminate the scourge of prisons
altogether. However, that will never happen under the dog-eat-dog culture of capitalism. Even after the socialist revolution it
will take a generation or two to erase the
negative effects of capitalist culture from
society. During this transition period there
will be far fewer prisons, although we may
not call them by that name. These facilities will be spacious areas of countryside,
with buildings designed for comfort (small
homes, not cells, close to cities and our
families and loved ones), where prisoners
(if they are still called that) have everything
needed to make life more enjoyable, such
as computers, adequate medical care, open
conjugal visits, education and wages comparable to outside workers, etc.
My point here is that you are in a struggle
for power, without which your conditions
of existence will never improve.2 You see
2. Save for the pull up bar, or sweat pants you might
have to struggle for another twenty years to get.

the phrase “power to the people” bandied
about. This is what we are talking about,
empowerment!
Dialectics teach us that everything in nature is in a constant state of change. Even
rocks, which change very slowly, are not
immune from this process. The struggle
of prisoners is also in a constant state of
change. Everything is either growing or in a
state of decline and decay, and this includes
political struggles and movements as well.
I think we can deduce from the number of
participants in the three hunger strikes that
the prisoners’ movement in California has
the potential for growing larger and more
powerful, that it is changing into, or in the
process of becoming, a political movement.

CONTENTS
The Last Issue .........................1
Libya: Three Years Later ..........4
Book Review: Guerrilla USA ....5
Lawsuit: Mumia Censorship .....8
Letters ......................................9
A New Beginning?....................11
Battered Citizen Syndrome ......12
Proposition 47 Releases ..........12
Book Review: Out of Control....14
Non-Violent Women Cons .......17
Rock's Future ...........................18
Poetry.......................................19

Yet there are many contradictions, some
antagonistic, like between the keepers
and the kept or the rich and the poor, and
some non-antagonistic, like the contradiction among various groups of prisoners.
Non-antagonistic are resolved
through discussion, criticism,
self-criticism, and through other peaceful solutions. So while
our movement for constructive change is growing, there
are internal contradictions that
must be resolved. In spite of the
Agreement to End Hostilities,
for example, a letter writer reports that there was a recent riot
between whites and Mexicans
at his facility. So there are two
opposites at work here—the pull
back to the old ways of prisoneron-prisoner violence (cannibalism), or the peaceful struggle to
bring about a more just and rational world.
Which will win? Well, of course, the one
you feed.
Right now this peaceful movement for
progressive change is a mile wide but
only an inch deep. The task is to deepen
this struggle, while at the same time making it even wider. How is this to be done?
Well, there are countless ways. The most
important, in my opinion, is for the more
politically advanced and rights conscious
prisoners to become teachers. The object
would be to make social prisoners’ rightsconscious and rights-conscious prisoners
class conscious.
Being a teacher is as easy as what Walla
Walla prisoners did in 1971. Where strict
short hair rules were in effect at the time,
some prisoners scrawled on walls: If you
care, grow some hair."
Advances in the movement can only
be made through increasing the rights
and political consciousness of larger and
larger numbers of prisoners. Those with
a more advanced level of consciousness
should reach out to the intermediate layers
of political development, who in turn can
penetrate the bottom strata, moving them
forward or at least neutralizing the most
backwards. Two of the many ways of accomplishing this is through study groups
and putting out small underground newsletters on the inside.
I have been doing this work for over
forty years, from both the inside and out
here in minimum custody. One thing I’ve
learned in those years is that in this movement nothing stands still. It is growing or
2

decaying—there will be political progress
or there will be internecine cannibalism.
Welcome to democracy! You each have a
vote. You vote with your feet (Prison Focus #41, Winter 2013, page 14).

The first step in this journey is not only to
recommit to Agreement to End Hostilities,
but to do what your captors have not done:
disseminate this call to the populations
of the state’s prisons. They refuse to take
this step to stop the prisoner-on-prisoner
violence for two reasons. First, because it
keeps prisoners divided and the Green Wall
in full control. And, secondly, because
stopping the gang violence in this manner would be giving the reps power—dual
power—and prisoner power is a terrible
anathema to the failing policies of the prisoncrats (we might do it better than them,
prisoners and ex-convicts are the experts
on the root causes of the state’s disastrous
corrections failure!). Just look at the “Rehabilitation” joke that went no further than
a change from CDC to CDCR, while at the
same time slashing some already existing
rehabilitation programs).
When I talk of socialism some prisoners tend to have a mental picture of Stalinist (oppressed) zombies marching off to
toil in the people’s glorious factories and
wheat fields, like in the old Soviet Union as
given to us by the ruling class’s means of
disinformation and miseducation. And socialism can indeed be that, or even a worse
form of government.
Just as the economic system of capitalism can wear a political face of anything
from fascist terror to a liberal democracy,
so too can the economic engine of socialism. Think of a social system (either capitalism or socialist) as an ocean liner. On the
bottom of the ship is the engine that drives
it forward, in this analogy we’ll call it this

section of the ship the economic infrastructure. On the top of our ship is the wheel
house and other mechanisms providing the
ship’s direction and destination, which we
will name the ship's political superstructure.
Capitalism and socialism have
completely different economic
infrastructures, in the case of the
former the means of production
and distribution are in private
hands, in the hands of large corporations that are owned by less
than one half of one percent of
the population called the ruling
class or bourgeoisie. In the case
of the latter, the means of production are owned by the working class and production works
to serve their class interests, the
interests of the vast majority of
people.
The political superstructure of either of
those economic engines can take any form
depending upon the needs of the struggle.
In the case of the revolutionary struggle, it
can be anything from authoritarian (but socialist) dictatorship to a liberal democracy
in which said democracy actually rules in
the interests of the vast majority.
How would socialism look in America?
Well, as I said, it will look however the
people making the revolution want it to
look – the working class and its allies. But
I can bet that there will be no revolution
in the U.S.A. unless it actually extends
democracy—both economic and political,
and unless it provides the truth, dignity and
justice so lacking in today’s America.
To The Class Conscious Prisoners:
“Like Britain before it, the US has
tended to support radical Islam and
to oppose secular nationalism, which
both imperial states have regarded
as more threatening to their goals of
domination and control.”
—Noam Chomsky
The presidential elections coming up in
2016 portend to be more of the same, at this
point the race for the office will be between
the war mongering Clinton dynasty or, on
the other hand, the war hawks of the Bush
clan. Or maybe even Joe Biden, or some
other dark horse who is virtually the same
as a Clinton or a Bush. As you're ground
between the wheels of the two party’s massive propaganda machines, remember that
both parties are about serving the interests
of the rich and perpetual war profiteering.
Rock!

There is big money in making, using, and
selling all these weapons—not to mention
the money we get from stealing the natural
resources and labor of the nations we use
our military might against. If you did here
within the U.S., what they do internationally, they would charge you with armed
robbery. The majority of armored vehicles,
weapons, and explosives taking lives every minute in the Middle East are stamped
"Made in USA."
While the U.S. is building bigger, more
expensive, and deadlier weapons, China
has been quietly investing in its infrastructure, building highways, bridges, schools,
and other projects that add to the national
wealth. It’s the age old choice of guns or
butter. When a nation builds weapons they
might as well be producing garbage, as
once used or gone obsolete there is nothing of value left. China, according to the
International Monetary Fund (IMF), on the
other hand, just overtook the US to become
the world’s largest economy.
Look at the difference in their respective
defense budgets, the U.S. spends over 700
billion dollars a year on war, which does
not account for the billions in supplemental
spending authorizations for ongoing wars
in places like Iraq and Afghanistan (Yemen, Pakistan, or other nations we are currently bombing).
China, spends a mere 65 billion a year
on its military. Gee, I wonder who’s going
to go broke first. I wonder who’s going to
need a war in order to get back on top—
when your only tool is a hammer every
problem looks like a nail, but it ain't necessarily true that you can fix a computer
problem with a hammer.
You think these constant conflicts are
about terrorism? The tactic of terrorism is
nothing other than blowback over our numerous military and foreign policy blunders, committed as we beguile and wrestle
the resources away from people in foreign
lands. Yes, the systematic exploitation
and subjugation of the planet's poor. Any
who resist us and our NATO flunkies are
marked for death.
Let’s take just one commodity—oil. Sadam Husain’s mistake was not in possession
of non-existent WMDs; his real error was
in trying to leave the dollar-based global
system for oil exchanges. Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi made the same mistake, he
tried to sell his oil in a currency other than
the U.S. dollar. Iran, with the backing of
China and Russia, has been trying to do it
also. This is one of capitalism’s underlying
Volume 3, Number 12

flaws; its enormous need for petroleum.
And what about Syria? Returning to author Mike Withy who wrote, in the context
of why Turkey is not responding to the ISIS
attack on the Kurdish fighters in the Kurdish city of Kobane, that “The Turks expect
to be big players in the regional energy
market after Assad is removed and pipeline
corridors are established from the giant
South Pars/North Dome gas field off Qatar.
The pipeline will run from Qatar, to Iraq, to
Syria and on to Turkey, providing vital supplies for the voracious EU market. There
are also plans for an Israel to Turkey pipeline accessing gas from the massive Leviathan gas field located off the coast of Gaza.
Both of these projects will strengthen Turkey’s flagging economy as well as bolster
its stature and influence in the region.”3

Again, these wars are about oil, not terrorism! Which came first, the chicken or
the egg? Which came first to the Middle
East, international imperialism’s theft of
the natural resources, lands, and the futures of their children (oil). Or, on the other
hand, did the armed resistance to that crime
come before the invasions? Remember,
there would not even be places like Kuwait
had it not been for British imperialism slicing and dicing the borders of that region for
its own petroleum needs. Note that under
international law it is the right of a people
occupied by a foreign army (in places like
Iraq, Afghanistan, and other areas where
America is murdering people,4 to resist
such occupation "by any means necessary."
The U.S. and its NATO lackeys will
most likely do a ground invasion of Syria
(although some purists might already consider bombing the Syrians from the air an
act of war), then take Lebanon, and then go
for Iran, etc.
"In the Middle East," according to General Wesley Clark: “We’re going to take
out seven Middle Eastern countries in five
3. This is being wri en in early October, 2014, so
events and condi ons may have radically changed by
press me. But my point remains the same—it’s all
about the oil.
4. This is how the U.S. sets itself up for defeat, by killing women and children. It only make people angry—
like standing under a wasps nest and shoo ng into it
with a BB gun. The wasps are going to s ck together
against you. Call them “terrorists” if you like.

years: Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan & Iran...” Libya was of course
an easy one. Today Libya is a basket case,
a failed state.5
The American scheme might have
worked were it not for two nations, China and Russia. Iran has a mutual defense
pact with Syria’s president Assad. What
this means is that a U.S./NATO attack on
Syria might readily lead to a war with Iran
and possibly Russia and then China. Or at
the very least our bombs will grow the resistance. Like in Cambodia, where under
U.S. bombs Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge
grew from 5,000 to a formidable army of
200,000. ISIS has a similar past and present. Will we also bomb ISIS up to 200,000?
And now it's time to say good bye, at
least for now. It has been my honor and
privilege to be your propaganda officer for
the last three years. I've met some of the
best people I've known doing this paper.
Conclusion
Only the 61 readers will be receiving this
issue of the newsletter. They are the only
ones who have paid. This is where we start.
Where it ends is up to you. ●
5. In the run-up to U.S. missiles slamming into Libya,
the bourgeois media painted Gaddafi as a ruthless
dictator. For another perspec ve, please read the arcle on Libya on page 7. The fact is that the oil wealth
from Libya’s wells did not go into private hands, but
was shared with the people. Gaddafi released all of
the na on’s prisoners. Educa on was free, etc. Yet
the capitalists elements within the na on wanted
that oil wealth for themselves—not the people. With
the help of global imperialism the reac onaries won.
Today we have those religious fundamentalists (yes,
they are also capitalists) figh ng with each other for
the oil spoils.
I’m just a dumb old ex-convict and even I know
that the use of excessive force by those in authority
breeds resistance. The peoples of all these na ons
that are on the receiving end of imperialism’s drone
strikes and bombings are not rolling over, they are
figh ng back!
As an atheist I reject religion of such ou its as
the Islamic State (IS ISIS or Daash); their homophobia, their draconian posi on on women’s rights, their
killing prisoners, pro-capitalism; etc. In one respect,
however, they might be right; these lands are their
lands and those resources are their resources. Those
borders, however, are not theirs. The borders were
created by interna onal imperialism. Depending on
who you ask, ISIS seeks to restore this region to its
former glory by engulfing much of the Middle East, or
to make Iraq and Syria one na on again.
Out with President Assad of Syria, then in with IS?
Objec vely, the U.S. is in a defacto alliance with ISIS
against Assad, while at the same me bombing ISIS.
America’s foreign policy since World War Two has
pre y much been a disaster—we just never le the
post WW II war economy.
When President Dwight D. Eisenhower le office,
in his farewell speech to the American people he
said, “In the councils of government, we must guard
against the acquisi on of unwarranted influence,
whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The poten al for the disastrous rise of
misplaced power exists and will persist."

3

LIBYA: THREE YEARS LATER
Today's Headline: "175 Killed in Fighting in Benghazi."
Days after Nelson Mandela’s passing a Twitter user wondered: “Why
was Mandela’s life celebrated by the
world while Gaddafi, after everything
he did for Africa, was gunned down
like a dog?”1
n 1967 Colonel Gaddafi inherited one
of the poorest nations in Africa; however, by the time he was assassinated,
Gaddafi had turned Libya into Africa’s
wealthiest nation. Libya had the highest
GDP per capita and life expectancy on
the continent. Less people lived below the
poverty line than in the Netherlands. In
addition, he had a strong presence in Africa, serving as the President of the African
Union, uniting 53 states.
Gaddafi believed that he was on good
terms with the West. Enter NATO’s “intervention” in 2011, Libya is now a failed
state and its economy is in shambles. As
the government’s control slips through
their fingers and into to the militia fighters’
hands, oil production has all but stopped.
The militias variously local, tribal, and
regional, Islamist or criminal, that have
plagued Libya since NATO’s intervention,
have recently lined up into two warring
factions. Libya now has two governments,
both with their own Prime Minister, parliament and army.
The fall of Gaddafi’s administration has
created all of the country’s worst-case scenarios: Western embassies have all left, the
South of the country has become a haven
for terrorists, and the Northern coast a center of migrant trafficking. Egypt, Algeria
and Tunisia have all closed their borders
with Libya. This all occurs amidst a backdrop of widespread rape, assassinations
and torture that complete the picture of a
state that is failed to the bone.
On one side, in the West of the country,
Islamist-allied militias took over control of
the capital Tripoli and other cities and set
up their own government, chasing away a
parliament that was elected over the summer. On the other side, in the East of the
Country, the “legitimate” government
dominated by anti-Islamist politicians, ex-

I

1. Once freed from prison in 1990, Nelson Mandela
visited Libya to personally thank Gadaffi for his many
years of support. What was Mandela's real feelings
toward the US? In 2002 he said: "If you look at those
ma ers, you will come to the conclusion that the attude of the United States of America is a threat to
world peace. If there is a country that has committed unspeakable atroci es in the world, it is the USA.
They don't care for human beings."

4

iled 1,200 kilometers away in Tobruk, no
longer governs anything. America is backing a third force: long-time CIA asset, General Khalifa Hifter, who aims to set himself
up as Libya’s new dictator. Hifter is currently receiving logistical and air support
from the U.S. because his faction envisions
Libya as open to Western financiers, speculators, and capital.
For over 40 years, Gaddafi promoted
economic democracy and used the nationalized oil wealth to sustain progressive
social welfare programs for all Libyans.
Under Gaddafi’s rule, Libyans enjoyed not
only free health-care and free education,
but also free electricity and interest-free
loans. Now thanks to NATO’s intervention
the health-care sector is on the verge of collapse as thousands of Filipino health workers flee the country, institutions of higher
education across the East of the country are
shut down, and blackouts are a common
occurrence in once thriving Tripoli.
One group that has suffered immensely
from NATO’s bombing campaign is the
nation’s women. Unlike many other Arab
nations, women in Gaddafi’s Libya had the
right to education, hold jobs, divorce, hold
property and have an income. The United
Nations Human Rights Council praised
Gaddafi for his promotion of women’s
rights. When the colonel seized power in
1969, few women went to university. Today, more than half of Libya’s university
students are women. One of the first laws
Gaddafi passed in 1970 was an equal pay
for equal work law.
In August 2011, President Obama confiscated $30 billion from Libya’s Central
Bank, which Gaddafi had earmarked for
the establishment of the African IMF and
African Central Bank. Libya had no external debt and its reserves amounted to $150
billion—which are now frozen (i.e. being
stolen by international imperialism).
• One time he released all of the nation's
prisoners (and several partial mass pardons).
• It was enshrined in law that every Libyan should have a home and home ownership was considered a basic human right.
• Newly married couples would receive a
free 60,000-dinar (i.e. $50,000) grant to
get them on the property ladder and have
a comfortable start to married life.
• Libya had a free national health service.
• Libya provided free education for all

citizens.
• If any Libyans had other exceptional
medical or educational needs, the government would fund their visits abroad,
giving them $2,300 per month for accommodation and travel.
• Libyans who wanted to work the land
were given some acres to farm, a little
house, tools, livestock and seeds to begin their careers.
• The government would pay half the cost
of every Libyan citizen’s first car.
• The price of petrol in Libya was $0.14
per litre.
• If a Libyan graduate was unable to find
a job in his or her chosen profession, the
government would pay the average salary of their desired job until they were in
full time employment.
• A portion of every Libyan oil sale was
credited directly to the bank accounts of
all Libyan citizens.
• Every family received $5,000 in child
benefit.
• 40 loaves of bread in Libya used to cost
$0.15.
• 25 % of Libyans had a university degree.
Compare the above with the image of
Gaddafi portrayed by international imperialism’s twisted propaganda machine.
Outside folks can do an Internet search
for “Gaddafi” and all those bourgeois lies
come bubbling up to the top, since they
are the newest. You will have a picture of
a brutal dictator, blood dripping from his
arthritic fingers, who tortures prisoners,
steals the wealth of the nation into his own
pocket, and on and on. No slander was too
base, no reported “fact” too wild to be bothered with something called fact checking.
Here’s a sample headline: REVEALED:
MUAMMAR GADDAFI’S SECRET
RAPE DUNGEONS. Our colossal media
machine in bold letters blared out “Kill
him, kill him, kill!” All watched on TV as
that final bullet was put through Gaddafi’s
head. And America cheered!2
Let’s take a quick look at how that propaganda machine works. We’ll take one word,
say “democracy” and compare its meaning
2. “...if you form the habit of taking what someone
else says about a thing without checking it out for
yourself, you’ll find that other people will have you
ha ng your friends and loving your enemies. ...you”ll
always be maneuvered into a situa on where you are
never figh ng your actual enemies, where you will
find yourself figh ng your own self.” Source: Malcolm
X Speaks, George Breitman, ed., New York, 1965, pp.
137-146.

Rock!

within a class context. The meaning of “democracy” in ruling class circles is reflected
in a 2002 New York Times Editorial on the
U.S.-backed military coup in Venezuela,
which temporarily removed that country’s
democratically elected (and very popular)
president, Hugo Chávez.
Rather than describe that coup as what
it was by definition - a direct attack on democracy by a foreign power and domestic
military which disliked the popularly elected president – the Times, in the most Orwellian fashion imaginable, literally celebrated the coup as a victory for democracy.
“Thankfully”, said the NYT, “democracy
in Venezuela was no longer in danger .."
because the democratically-elected leader
was forcibly removed by the military and
replaced by an unelected, pro-U.S. business leader.
The CIA spent five billion dollars destabilizing the then democratically elected
government of the Ukraine and overthrew
him. In fact, the U.S. and NATO are behind
all of the “color revolutions” eating into
Russia’s former sphere of influence, which
escapes no one save the American people.

Gaddafi believed that he
was on good terms with
the West.
Three years ago, NATO declared that
the mission in Libya had been “one of the
most successful in NATO history.” Truth
is, Western interventions have produced
nothing but colossal failures in Libya, Iraq,
and Syria. Lest we forget, prior to western
military involvement in these three nations,
they were the most modern and secular
states in the Middle East and North Africa
with the highest regional women’s rights
and standards of living.
NATO’s military intervention may have
been a resounding success for America’s
military elite and oil companies, but for
the ordinary Libyan, the military campaign
may indeed go down in history as one of
the greatest failures of the 21st century.
So why did the bourgeoisie love Mandela and hate Gaddafi? Mandella put a black
face on white South African Capitalism.
Gaddafi,on the other hand, wanted to sell
his oil in exchange for gold rather than the
dollar, and he opposed the now unfolding
U.S. military occupation of Africa—he refused to join the U.S.'s Africa Command. ●
Information gleaned from Internet
sources and strung together
(plagiarized) by Ed Mead
Volume 3, Number 12

AN ACCOUNTING
The Bruce Seidel Memorial
Fund is No More

W

hen I was released from prison
there was one other George
Jackson Brigade (GJB) member still behind bars, a New Afrikan named
Mark Cook. I immediately organized the
Mark Cook Freedom Committee and set
about the process of organizing for his
release. While doing this the community
raised about $8,000 for Mark, a car, and a
job with the county.
Once Mark was released we continued
to work together on political projects. One
idea we came up with was to set up a fund
for recently released progressive political
prisoners. We established a bank account
in the name of the “Bruce Seidel Memorial
Fund”3 and seeded it with $10,000 of our
own money (we both had good jobs back
in those days). We subsequently gave away
under half of that money to the people we
had set the fund up for, leaving over $5,000
in the account remaining to be given away
to deserving prisoners.
Then the California hunger strikes happened and Mark and I were all in; we threw
everything we had into those struggles,
including the money reserved for released
prisoners. Where’d the money go? Some of
that I can talk about and some of it I can’t
(nothing at all illegal). We printed 12,000
copies of a color broadsheet, for example,
at a cost of thousands, and shipped bundles
of them to activists in cities across the nation. We did mass mailings, etc. Also, at
that point the Bruce Seidel Memorial Fund
had existed for something like five years,
and in all that time nobody else had donated a cent to our $10,000 contribution to
released political prisoners.
We felt justified in our use of that money
for the political struggle of prisoners—that
is until a potential recipient was released.
It’s happened. Now former political prisoner Sekou Kambui is freed after 40 years in
prison and in need of money. Please give, if
only to assuage my guilt.
I apologize to you, Sekou, for using
money, a part of which would have been set
aside for your release, on broadsheets and
such. But there are more to blame than me.
The anarchist community not only never
gave a penny to the fund, the money they
raised was going to former white anarchist
3. Bruce Seidel was a member of the George Jackson
Brigade. He was killed during shoot-out with police in
the course of a GJB bank expropria on.

prisoners who’d served a short time, while
ignoring calls to support people like Sekou.
Mark, at 78, is pretty much broke, in assisted living, and his only income is social
security. I’m a spry young 73 year-old.
My only income is also social security, although I do have a partner who still works.
Also, as most readers know, I have a terminal disease (advanced stage lung cancer).
Mark and I are tapped out, we gave all we
can give. Now it’s your turn. Please send
Sekou some financial support. It need not
be much, as everyone (including Mark and
I) can give some. Send contributions to:
Sekou Kambui
305 W. Powell St.
Dothan, AL 36303

BOOK REVIEW
“Guerrilla USA: The George Jackson
Brigade and the anti-capitalist underground of the 1970s” By Daniel Burton Rose, ucpress, 2010, 277 pages.
By Jose H. Villarreal
had heard of the George Jackson Brigade (GJB) for some years and was
delighted when a comrade gave me the
opportunity to read this piece of hystory
by giving me this book. The book discusses the GJB and some of the participants,
among them Ed Mead of the quarterly
Prison Focus newspaper and monthly Rock
Newsletter. I enjoyed learning about the
GJB and about the hystory showing what
brought people to rise up in armed struggle
against the US empire. The book appropriately starts off with a hystory lesson of
the times, leading up to the creation of the
GJB. This was a period where Robert Williams in the 1950s was in armed struggle
in the South with his self-defense group
against Klan terror. His efforts would prove
too radical for even most liberals in the US
and he would go into exile with his wife,
Mabel - first to Cuba, then to China.
The 60s came and the Watts riots of
1965 erupted. Urban guerrilla warfare was
in full swing in many cities. The Chicano
Movement raised its fist, the American Indian Movement rose up and groups like
the Black Panthers, Brown Berets, Young
Lords Party and Weathermen were mobilizing their people in so many ways. Rebellions erupted in New Jersey, and in Detroit
the people clashed with the National Guard
with over 40 left dead.
The world was erupting all over with
revolution and guerrilla wars. The time was

I

5

ripe for political activity that drew in the
youth and inspired rebellion.
One of the great things about ‘Guerrilla
USA’ was that it discussed how not just the
activist community began to really discuss
the Lumpen (prisoners, etc) in the scheme
of things, but also how there began to be
real collaboration between Lumpen folks
and activists on the outside. In ‘Guerrilla
USA’ we read examples of people like Ed
Mead, George Jackson, Eldridge Cleaver,
the Symbionese Liberation Army and others who were prisoners but transformed,
revolutionized and injected the activist
movement with critical intensity.
Prisoners and ex-prisoners, when politicized, will prove to be that critical component which helps to push and advance the
people and the movement for justice forward. This is because prisoners in many
cases come from a place of unvarnished
repression, which in the US serves as
fertile ground for dissent and resistance.
The state’s worst nightmare is having the
“gangs” in the US turn their guns away
from each other and instead aim them at
US imperialism.
Those prisoners of the 60s and 70s who
were able to defy all the repressive odds
stacked against them from the state became
the concrete examples of the concept ‘repression breeds resistance.’ This cross-pollination between Lumpen and outside activists is the incendiary burst that threatens
US imperialism within its borders the most
and which today the state is attempting to
obstruct, especially with the new regulations being proposed that would ban any
publications which disagree with the state.
Problem is the ship has already left the port.
By the time the GJB became active in the
armed struggle they had a lot of company.
The 1970s were a time when folks stepped
up their resistance and bombing became
more and more popular. On page 37 the
author speaks about different groups that
were active during the “second wave of
bombing” and just in the Bay Area alone,
he notes… “Local players in mid- to- late
1970s San Francisco, San Jose, Oakland,
and Berkeley included the Chicano Liberation Front, New World Liberation Front,
Red Guerrilla Family, Emilio Zapata Unit,
Iranian Liberation Army, Sam MelvilleJonathon Jackson Unit.”
This was the environment in which the
GJB mingled and operated. Groups engaging in urban guerrilla warfare in many cases
included ex-prisoners because the struggles
on both sides of the prison walls were over6

lapping and there were two, three, many
Dragons. But what set the GJB apart from
many of these groups at the time, I learned,
were its internationalist actions (like when
they did a bombing for the four dead Red
Army Faction prisoners in Germany). This
led me to think of the period during our
prison hunger strikes when Palestinian
prisoners sent us words of solidarity and
we sent solidarity to prisoners around the
world who are suffering like us. This solidarity may be displayed again in the near
future in more than words by prisoners
around the world.
Ed Mead’s childhood reads like that
of many prisoners who have been ‘state
raised’ - growing up with one parent, running the streets, committing petty crime for
pocket money or to eat, juvenile hall and
reformatory school. This molding for a rebellious spirit is very familiar to people, especially poor people, in the US. As someone who began doing time in juvenile hall
even before I was a teenager I understand
this process of institutionalization real
good. But this criminalization also creates
another development where prisoners begin to understand the reality of our enemy
who is most manifested in state repression.
This realization is a leap in consciousness
which takes decades for a prisoner to grasp
in most cases, if it is ever grasped at all.
Some, unfortunately, never develop politically on this page. On page 45 BurtonRose explains this process and how it happened for Ed Mead:
“After being incarcerated on the burglary charges, however, Mead began to
identify as a criminal. This adjustment
was something of a psychological survival
mechanism, permitting, as it did, a positive
framing of his increasingly acute alienation
from working class respectability. The permanent outsider status of ‘criminal’ laid the
ground work for the oppositional identity
Mead would embrace in his early thirties:
that of a communist revolutionary.”
Once criminalized, in many ways we
are in a “permanent outsider status” where
jobs, housing, education and other social
services are severely restricted, if not totally out of our reach. Out of confusion,
many end up blaming themselves for being
cast off from US society, but this is only
because they don’t understand where this
oppression stems from. It stems from the
same oppression that plagues and criminalizes poor people all over the world, and this
is capitalism. Coming to grips with this is a
necessity for liberation.

As he did fed time it was interesting to
read how Mead was penalized and thrown
in the hole for doing legal work. For writing a writ he was punished, and like most
of us when told not to do something, well
we usually want to do it more.
Chapter six was almost like reading
something about the hunger strikes that
rocked California in the past few years.
In the Federal prison at McNeal Island the
author describes Mead’s transition to “Jailhouse Lawyer.” Most prisoners develop
their legal skills in large part because the
law is another tool, a weapon, in which to
combat state repression. Most of us know
that we will never totally liberate the people through the kourts, but we can create
some wiggle room where we not only just
go on another day but we can also open up
other fronts of struggle.
Not only was a class action lawsuit filed
by prisoners at McNeal Island, but shortly
thereafter a prisoner strike followed. Sound
familiar? Something else that the author
speaks about is how after the work strikes
at McNeal Island, Mead began to study
revolutionary theory. At one point he began
to trace the repression he was experiencing
to Amerika, and as Mead is quoted as saying on page 61: “In the process of struggle,
one day I looked at myself and saw that I
wasn’t a criminal anymore.”
This was pretty deep, and it’s something
that all prisoners at some point come to
see. When you are resisting repression, especially in a torture unit like Pelican Bay
SHU, eventually one realizes that one’s
struggle for justice has elevated oneself and
now it is the state who is the criminal by
subjecting us to such dehumanizing conditions.
I found it interesting to read about Rita
‘Bo’ Brown, another member of the GJB
who after living a life on the outside found
herself in Federal prison for stealing mail
from her job at the post office. This lesbian
prisoner was in Federal prison when news
broke of George Jackson’s assassination
in August of 1971. When this news broke
the wimmin of Terminal Island staged a
strike, it was here that Rita began to develop consciously, as did many others.
Wimmin in a federal prison in Alderson,
West Virginia, also participated in a strike
that quickly turned into a small rebellion which included some escapes - in honor of
“comrade George.” The uprising at Attica,
a prison in upstate, NY soon followed, in
which prisoners took over the prison and
dozens were murdered by the state. Prisons
Rock!

were engulfed in rebellion.
In a similar theme to Ed Mead’s story,
Rita would get out of prison and become
active for prisoner’s rights and go on to
form a wimmin’s prisoner support group.
She saw this as a necessity due to the existing University prisoner’s coalition following a patriarchal agenda and focusing on
catering to male prisoners.
In addition to all of the other radical activity of the 70s, both Rita and Ed seemed
to be immensely affected by the activity
of the Weather Underground and the Symbionese Liberation Army who were, as the
author describes, “incinerated” by what
the pigs had done in Compton, California.
These two factors seemed to ignite more
action in both Brown and Mead, which I
believe was the intent of armed struggle, to
not just give the enemy a taste of their own
medicine but to activate the populace.
It was interesting to read in chapter 15
about a George Jackson Brigade member,
John Sherman, who was at one time a member of the Revolutionary Union which is
now known as the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP-USA). In this book Mead
is quoted as comparing them to “Jehovah’s
Witness” people who “only interacted with
other true believers, unless their purpose
was to proselytize.” In my own interaction
with RCP-USA, other Raza and I have seen
them display what can only be described as
White chauvinism toward Chicanos. When
it comes to the Chicano Nation the RCP is
against its existence and liberation.
Having never met the GJB member
Bruce Seidel, the impact of his death during the bank expropriation was devastating,
when reading about the ordeal. Reading of
Bruce committing class suicide in order to
take up armed struggle against capitalism
was powerful, but his quick death was a
tragedy. But again, pig terror always breeds
resistance.
Reading of Mark Cook was interesting.
After reading his brief commentary for a
couple of years now in the Rock newsletter,
this private behind the scenes figure comes
alive on these pages. His story as a prisoner
who helped organize the Black Panthers in
a Washington state prison, then paroled to
take up prison activism took me through
the pages of ‘Guerrilla USA’ to bank robbery, shootings with the pigs, to liberating
one of the GJB members from police custody and shooting the pig in the process.
Nicely done, Mark.
Mark’s arrest reminded me so much of
what happens to prisoners in the general
Volume 3, Number 12

population when informants are bought off
to collaborate with the pigs to frame us up.
In Mark’s case he got away after the liberating of his comrade, but the pigs did a sweep
of all possible suspects, the usual ex-felons
in a city. Mark was one of those picked up
for questioning, but so was a dope-fiend
who knew Mark. This dope-fiend would
tell the pigs that Mark confessed to him of
partaking in the jail-escape action, and as a
result Mark was soon arrested. The crazy
part about it is he never “confessed” to this
dope-fiend, just like informants in prisons
collaborating with the pigs today to take us
off the main lines. This is the recipe for the
classic frame-up.
Reading about the polemics that occurred
once Mead and Sherman were arrested after
the bank expropriation and Bruce’s death
revealed the pulse of the aboveground US
Left at the time. Many were denouncing the
armed struggle of the GJB, while folks like
the Left Bank Collective ultimately supported these actions. By the way, Left Bank
Books sent me books years ago through
their ‘Books to Prisoners’ program so it
was great to read about their hystorical activity, as well. But concerning the armed
struggle, today I would not say that conditions are ripe for an all-out armed struggle
en masse, however no phenomenon takes
on a linear path. I believe that conditions
are constantly ebbing and flowing and that
situations arise where the only logical decision is for armed struggle. When the people
are being slaughtered by the state there is
a need to defend ourselves and the people.
This includes in prisons where we have a
right to defend ourselves against state terror, although I would not say that armed
struggle is necessary in every occasion.
When you are struggling against occupying terrorists, armed struggle becomes a
necessity. The more privileged a person is,
the less likely it is that they will grasp this,
but the contradictions which stem from US
imperialism will only be resolved through
weaponized struggle. When it comes to US
imperialism all options are on the table,
and this is because different situations require a different response to life or death
questions.
The only criticism I had of the book is
when they describe a shoot-out between a
lookout and the pig where supposedly the
lookout shot at the arriving pig and a bullet
hit one of his comrades. Rather than being
in the line of fire, a re-positioning could
have been a good thing. I did enjoy seeing
that a self-criticism was done afterwards.

Once the first half of the Brigade gets
caught it seems the second half - Rita, Janine, John and Therese - began picking up
steam and getting good at conducting operations. The “disappearing” money was
a disappointment, as was John’s gambling
habit. Perhaps this was baggage he brought
from his days with the Revolutionary
Union… Ultimately, this was a great book.
Not only for its hystorical worth and practical lessons from armed anti-imperialism,
but also for helping me to understand some
of the folks who came to our aid during
our hystoric hunger strike. When we rose
up 30,000 strong at times I wondered what
brought so many to come to support us.
What compelled someone like Ed Mead
to spend his own meager funds to create
a newsletter like “Rock,” which amplifies
our voices and struggles in these torture
chambers? After reading this book I understand it is a love for the people and a thirst
for liberation which compels one on the
path to anti-imperialism, and this is what
drives one to serve the people. Even the
most brutal torture Kamp cannot erase this
truth nor stifle this natural development.
Love and Struggle,
Jose H. Villarreal
[Ed's Note: Since this book review is
about a group that engaged in armed struggle against the state, and since I was once
a part of that group, I feel it is important to
clarify something on the subject of armed
struggle in the context of the prison movement.
For the California prisoner’s movement,
violence will lead to immediate isolation
and defeat. Yesterday a man newly converted to Islam shot and killed a Canadian
guard and rushed into the legislative building where he was shot dead.
I understand his crime, yet such an act,
as Candida has made clear, will not have
any impact on their decision to join U.S.
imperialism in its ongoing attacks on the
peoples of the Middle East. Similarly, my
placing a pipe bomb under the desk of
Washington’s DOC boss did not change the
brutal DOC policies we were attacking.
If prisoners or ex-prisoners use violence against the state they will be stabbing themselves in the back. In the past I
have engaged in violence against the state,
and it is remotely possible that I may do
it again, should the need to do so expose
itself, but that time is not now and the issue
is not prisoners. Honor the Agreement to
End Hostilities, work to build unity on the
inside, that's how you'll win.]
7

LAWSUIT SEEKS TO INVALIDATE OUTGOING
GOVERNOR’S CENSORSHIP STATUTE
Prisoners, human rights advocates, scholars, and media sue to prevent enforcement

N

ovember 10, 2014: Pittsburgh, PA
- A lawsuit challenging a Pennsylvania censorship law intended to
silence Mumia Abu-Jamal and others convicted of personal injury crimes was filed
today, less than one month after outgoing
Governor Corbett signed the bill into law
as part of his failed re-election campaign.
The Abolitionist Law Center, Amistad
Law Project, and the Roderick and
Solange MacArthur Justice Center are
representing Mumia Abu-Jamal, Prison
Radio, Educators for Mumia AbuJamal, Kerry “Shakaboona” Marshall,
Robert L. Holbrook, and Human Rights
Coalition in a lawsuit against Attorney
General Kathleen Kane and Philadelphia
District Attorney Seth Williams that
was filed today in the Middle District of
Pennsylvania.
Senate Bill 508 allows the Attorney General, county District Attorneys, and victims
of personal injury crimes to bring a lawsuit
in civil court against the person convicted
of the personal injury crime to enjoin conduct that “perpetuates the continuing effect
of the crime on the victim”. The actions
that could prompt a lawsuit include “conduct which causes a temporary or permanent state of mental anguish.”
“This law is clearly unconstitutional.
The Pennsylvania legislature and Governor
Corbett wanted to use Mumia Abu-Jamal
to score political points and passed a law
that can’t pass constitutional muster. We’re
suing Attorney General Kane and Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams before
they can sue to keep Mumia from speaking
publicly,” said Bret Grote, Legal Director
of the Abolitionist Law Center.
On October 16th, days after Mumia
Abu-Jamal’s prerecorded commencement
speech was played for graduates at Goddard College in Vermont, the Pennsylvania
House passed Senate Bill 508. The bill was
passed in the Pennsylvania Senate the next
day and Governor Corbett signed it into
law on October 21st, 16 days after AbuJamal’s commencement speech.
Abu-Jamal has spent 33 years in prison,
30 of which were in solitary confinement
on death row after being convicted at a
1982 trial that Amnesty International said
“failed to meet minimum international
8

standards safeguarding the fairness of legal
proceedings.”
Abu-Jamal has given three commencement addresses in the past: another for
Goddard College in 2008; one for Antioch
College in Ohio in 2000; and one for Evergreen College in Washington state in 1999.
He has recorded more than 3,000 essays,
published seven books in nine languages,
with two more books set for publication
in 2015, and has been the subject of three
major broadcast and theatrical movies. The
latest film, Mumia: Long Distance Revolutionary, is currently airing on the Starz network, sold out theatres coast to coast, and
has sold more than 20,000 DVDs.
“This is not the first time Pennsylvania
has tried to silence Mumia,” said Noelle
Hanrahan of Prison Radio. “The Department of Corrections has punished Mumia for speaking publicly and eliminated
in-person broadcast media visits with all
prisoners in response pressure from the
Fraternal Order of Police.” In November
1996, the DOC responded to FOP pressure
by eliminating in-person broadcast media
visits with all prisoners.
In May 1994, a regular series of commentaries by Abu-Jamal were planned
for broadcast by National Public Radio
program All Things Considered. NPR
fired Abu-Jamal after having its funding
threatened on the floor of the U.S. Senate.
The Department of Corrections punished

Abu-Jamal for violating a prison rule that
forbade prisoners from conducting a business or profession. The Third Circuit found
that enforcing the rule against Abu-Jamal
would cause him irreparable harm under
the First Amendment.
“The Pennsylvania legislature has targeted Mumia Abu-Jamal and in the process
swept up a whole host of people in prison
and people who have come home,” said
Nikki Grant, Policy Director of Amistad
Law Project. “The fact that this bill is even
on the books makes it less likely that people
who have been convicted of personal injury
crimes will speak out publicly. These are
the people who are already most marginalized in our society.”
The Human Rights Coalition, another
plaintiff to the lawsuit, is consistently critical of human rights violations within the
Pennsylvania Department of Corrections
and is comprised of prisoners, prisoners’
family members, formerly incarcerated
people, and community activists. “Human
Rights Coalition utilizes the voices, input,
and leadership of people in prison in all
of our work,” said Patricia Vickers of Human Rights Coalition. “We also document
prison abuse and are concerned that this
law will make people fearful of reporting
abuse.”
“People who have been harmed by violence need relief--counseling, healing, restoration. Stifling speech doesn’t provide
any of that,” said Amistad Law Project Legal Director Ashley Henderson.
“How can the state’s legislators pass and
politicians sign the recent law described
as the ‘Muzzle Mumia Act’?” said Mumia
Abu-Jamal. “They can’t. At least not constitutionally. In order to do so they had to
knowingly and willingly violate both the
U.S. and state constitutions and their very
oaths of office.”
Contact:
Ashley Henderson,
ashley@amistadlaw.org
215-310-0424
Noelle Hanrahan,
globalaudiopi@gmail.com
415-706-5222
Bret Grote,
bretgrote@abolitionistlawcenter.org
412-654-9070
Rock!

STARK FACTS OF GLOBAL GREED,
A DISEASE AS CHALLENGING AS
CLIMATE CHANGE
By Paul Bucheit
e seem helpless, both in the U.S.
and around the world, to stop
the incessant flow of wealth to
an elitist group of people who are simply
building on their existing riches. The increasing rate of their takeaway is the message derived from the Credit Suisse Global
Wealth Databook (GWD).
It's already been made clear that the
richest Americans have taken almost all the
gains in U.S. wealth since the recession.
But the unrelenting money grab is a global
phenomenon. The GWD confirms just how
bad it's getting for the great majority of us.
1. U.S. -- Even the Upper Middle Class
Is Losing
In just three years, from 2011 to 2014,
the bottom half of Americans lost almost
half of their share of the nation's wealth,
dropping from a 2.5% share to a 1.3%
share (detail is here).
Most of the top half lost ground, too. The
36 million upper middle class households
just above the median (6th, 7th, and 8th
deciles) dropped from a 13.4% share to an
11.9% share. Much of their portion went to
the richest one percent.
This is big money. With total U.S. wealth
of $84 trillion, the three-year change represents a transfer of wealth of over a trillion
dollars from the bottom half of America to
the richest 1%, and another trillion dollars
from the upper middle class to the 1%.
2. U.S. -- In 3 Years, an Average of $5
Million Went To Every Household in the
1%
A closer look at the numbers shows the
frightening extremes. The bottom half of
America, according to GWD, owned $1.5
trillion in 2011. Now their wealth is down
to $1.1 trillion. Much of their wealth is in
housing equity, which was depleted by the
recession.
The richest Americans, on the other
hand, took incomprehensible amounts of
wealth from the rest of us, largely by being
already rich, and by being heavily invested
in the stock market. The following summary is based on GWD figures and reliable
estimates of the makeup of the richest one
percent, and on the fact that almost all the
nation's wealth is in the form of private
households and business assets:
• In 3 years the average household in the

W

Volume 3, Number 12

top 1% (just over a million households)
increased its net worth by about $4.5
million.
• In 3 years the average household in the
top .1% (just over 100,000 households)
increased its net worth by about $18 million.
• In 3 years the average household in the
top .01% (12,000 households) increased
its net worth by about $180 million.
• In 3 years the average member of the
Forbes 400 increased his/her net worth
by about $2 billion.
3. World -- 1% Wealth Grew from $100
Trillion to $127 Trillion in 3 Years
A stunning 95 percent of the world's population lost a share of its wealth over the
past three years. Almost all of the gain went
to the world's richest 1%.
Again, the gains seem almost incomprehensible. The world's wealth grew from
$224 trillion to $263 trillion in three years.
The world's richest 1%, who owned a little
under $100 trillion in 2011, now own almost $127 trillion. For every dollar they
possessed just three years ago, they now
have a dollar and a quarter.
From New York and LA and San Francisco to London and Kenya and Indonesia,
the rich are pushing suffering populations
out of the way to acquire land and build
luxury homes. The "winner-take-all" attitude is breaking down society in the U.S.
and around the world.
There's a lot more in the GWD, and it
doesn't get any prettier. It tells us what unregulated capitalism does to a society.
Paul Buchheit is a college teacher, and
the editor and main author of American
Wars: Illusions and Realities. ●

I am no longer accepting
the things I cannot change,

I am changing the things I
cannot accept.

LETTER ON
RE-VALIDATION
DISCRIMINATION

I

t has come to our attention that many
inmates who are undergoing their sixyear inactive review are being discriminated against. Specifically, those inmates
who the I.G.I. (goons) target and choose to
re-validate. According to the memorandum
dated August 9th, 2013. Subject: Update
and Information Sharing Related to the
Ongoing STG Case by Case Review. This
from the Director of Adult Institutions.
All validated members and associates
undergoing their six-year inactive review
will be referred to D.R.B. for a case by case
review. “After the evaluation”, however,
administrators are choosing to refer only
those inmates found inactive to D.R.B.
Even providing those inmates with a
D.R.B. review date while placing those inmates who are re-validated by I.G.I./O.C.S.
in limbo.
When confronted, counselors are claiming it is their responsibility to refer an inactive inmate to D.R.B. However, when
handling re-validated inmates the D.R.B.
referral is not included in their procedures.
Thus, administrators are ignoring the Director’s instructions on how six-year inactive reviews are to be conducted.
It is also important to point out that the
Director specifically states “Although inmates continue to be scheduled … for their
six-year inactive review, only conduct that
occurred during the preceding four years
will be considered and evaluated consistent
with the new STG policy.”
Basically, all those being revalidated
must fall within the guidelines of the STG
policy. This conclusion is further supported
by D.R.B.’s stance that case by case reviews
will only go up as far as March 1, 2013, as
all validated after said date should fall in
sync to new STG standards. We know that
this is not the case. Many inmates are being
revalidated as told by I.G.I. under the “old
validation” process.
Therefore, it is imperative that inmates
demand their due process rights are acknowledged and respected by voicing such
discrimination to all involved. Even by utilizing the 602 appeal process when needed.
The discrimination must stop!
Jose Nunez, PBSP
[Ed's Note: We've received several complaints about the re-validation process.]
9

A NEW BEGINNING OR THE BEGINNING OF THE END:
By C. Landrum
t is said that history repeats itself. There
is some truth to be found within this
statement. All existing matter, be it organic or inorganic, and social phenomenon
alike, have a history of endless development, a process of becoming, being, and
passing away and into something qualitatively new altogether.
But development does not, nor should it
be misunderstood, as proceeding along a
straight line. Linearism is a product of the
human mind, a human construct, that fails
to correspond with the external material
world and the laws inherent within it that
govern the direction and development of its
endless transformation.
History, like every other existing thing in
this world, develops not in a straight line,
like a recording on a reel that repeats itself
continually, but in a cyclical like ascendancy, with each cycle repeating itself qualitatively distinct from the previous one, or as
V.I. Lenin described:
“A development that repeats, as it
were, stages that have already been
passed, but repeats them in a different way, on a higher basis (negation
of negation), a development, so to
speak, that proceeds in spirals, not in
a straight line.”
At this particular stage in our struggle,
we are coming full circle as history is once
again repeating itself. This is a critical moment, and the life or death of our struggle is
being decided by our response to the Security Threat Group and Step Down Program
[S.T.G. and S.D.P. respectively] that we
have allowed the state to impose upon us.
The fact that we are assisting the state to
perpetuate its policy of social extermination under a new label directly reflects the
deterioration of our collective unity and the
resurgence of the vile individualism that
has come to characterize the prison population of the last two decades.
If we are to take a correct measurement of
our current situation and the trajectory we
are now on, we must place the S.T.G. and
S.D.P within its proper historical context,
and this requires that we once again revisit
the Castillo case with an understanding of
the 602 process and the function it serves.
The 602 process serves two main simultaneous functions: First, by seeking relief
on an individual basis, it distracts and divides us from the issues that impact us as a

I

10

group. Secondly, the administrative process
is dragged out for so long and the petitioner
is required to jump through so many hoops
that eventually most petitioners grow exhausted and abandons all attempts at seeking relief from the violations committed by
the state.
Embodied with this statement is the ageold strategy of “divide and conquer”, which
the CDC has learned to employ against us
with great efficiency. And everytime we
utilize the 602 process individually as the
only means of achieving transformation,
like a ju-jitsu fighter we allow the state to
turn our own individualism against ourselves as a means to deprive us of the unity
and momentum necessary for waging a
successful struggle. More important, this
strategy is not limited to the 602 process
alone, but is a common feature that permeates all interactions between the state and
ourselves. This is inevitable being that the
state’s apparatus of repression in all of its
various forms—the judicial system, police,
military, intelligence, etc., especially the
prison system—is an inherently oppressive
institution by design.
As most of us can recall, the Castillo case
was a long, arduous legal battle that raged
in the judiciary arena for some ten years in
a noble effort to eliminate the state’s inhumane practice of “social extermination”,
i.e., keeping us alive as living and breathing empty vessels without the social intercourse necessary for one to develop identity (emphasis added by Ed). For reasons left
unexamined we failed to complement this
legal battle with any other forms of direct
resistance, while IGI fascists and the CDC
bureaucracy remained adamantly consistent throughout in its own efforts to keep us
divided. Despite the absence of subjective
conditions (a politically conscious mass of
prisoners), the state recognized that nonetheless the objective conditions were conducive for large-scale resistance. And once
again, remaining true to form, we allowed
them to exploit our own self-interests in a
successful effort to prevent this potential
from materializing. When, as Anthony Artiaga pointed out in his recent article:
The six year “active/inactive gang
status review” was created and implemented. A policy requiring a validated
inmate to remain free of any and all
gang related activity and association
“for no period less than six years in or-

der to reconsider (but rarely granted)
general population release….
All hope for a unified resistance dissipated and “every-man-for-himself” was
now consolidated and set in stone, with the
initial release of a relatively insignificant
number of validated SHU prisoners back
into general population, we cultivated and
insured our own further atomization from
each other as we pursued our search for escape on an individual basis by way of the
six year inactive review policy.
Despite the fact that group oppression
necessitates group resistance, the state has
learned long ago that we are easily defeated
when we are tossed a bone that appeals to
our self-interest. The state accomplishes
this with little effort, sadly, when it sold us
on a false hope that we could all obtain inactive status as individuals.
To reiterate, Joseph Dzhucashvili stated
that dialectical and historical materialism
teaches us that: “…the process of development should not be understood as a movement in a circle, not as a simple repetition
of what has already occurred, but as an onward and upward movement, as a transition
from … the simple to the complex.”
It has been roughly fifteen years since the
Castillo case settled, and the empty promise of the six year inactive review policy
was implemented—and here we are coming full circle. Like in the Castillo case,
the state has initiated its imposition of the
S.T.G. and S.D.P., pacifying potential resistance with the release of SHU prisoners
back into the general population, although
this time around the numbers have been
significantly greater and have included elements from amongst the “leadership” thus
creating an externally superficial illusion of
victory.
Throughout the hunger strikes we paid an
extraordinary amount of lip service to the
necessity of collective unity, and yet when
the state employed its own counter-tactics
to create fissures and divisions amongst us
once again, we assisted them in their endeavor. Without any consideration for long
term consequences, or the immediate obvious fact that our current circumstances, or
the immediately obvious fact that our current circumstances are far more dire now
that when we first initiated our strikes, we
could not trip over each other fast enough
to sign release forms acknowledging guilt
of past association, or membership, “post
Rock!

A QUESTION TO THE LEADERSHIP
facto” in our scramble to get out. This fidelity to philosophic pragmatism and its application will come back to bite us.
Within the last twelve months the state
claims to have released seventy percent of
those previously held within the tombs of
the Security Housing Unit (SHU), and yet
the number of those in isolation have remained consistently steady.
Philosophically, idealism is a still a poisonous weed that continues to distort the
mind of many. In spite of those who are
proclaiming victory, reality is not determined by wishful thinking.
The demand to eliminate collective punishment was not only not achieved, but true
to its fascist inclinations the CDC retaliated
by making it policy and thus giving pseudolegitimization to its practice, via the new
STG with the SDP, the IGI has extended
its reach even further. Anyone having belonged to any group, or street gang (past or
present), or possessing any political opinions reflecting a class position other than
their own, can be isolated indefinitely without any connection to a particular prison
gang. Our vulnerability has increased in
direct proportion to the increase of state
power.
Like the six year inactive review policy,
the number of those now being released under the S.T.G. and S.D.P. will decrease dramatically and ultimately taper off to a trickle in correlation to our own struggle losing
steam with the waning of outside support. If
we are to inject life back into our struggle,
we must absolutely understand the S.T.G.
and S.D.P. for what it is, i.e., another means
to perpetuate indefinite isolation under a
new label. We have not achieved our goal
of ending social-extermination. This is not
a spiteful, nor rhetorical question, but we
must sincerely ask ourselves—“is this truly
a victory, or a failure being sold as a victory
by those reactionary elements amongst us?
With each state in the historical development of our struggle, changes in policy
alone have only amounted to a change in
label, allowing the state to maintain it trajectory without interruption. If we are to
eliminate social-extermination, “abstract”
changes in policy must be facilitated with
“concrete” transformations. We must transform the various Ad Seg and SHU facilities from within, otherwise indefinite isolation will continue unabated and the state
will manufacture a new label whenever
Volume 3, Number 12

circumstances necessitate, be in “program
failure”, “validation”, or the latest gem
from the CDC’s book of labels “S.T.G. and
S.D.P.”, etc.
If we are to greatly reduce, or eliminate,
their ability to permanently isolate us, we
must struggle for the installation of two
4-man tables in each pod, phones, exercise bars (dip, pull up, push up combo) designed and fabricated by prisoners, cellies,
Day Room time for social development
and preservation of the individual’s identity. Social intercourse is a “human right”
that needs to be established to facilitate
these changes—both in policy and practice. To accomplish this, “limited association” must be our primary demand, and if
collective unity is to be more than empty
rhetoric, then we must likewise adjust our
demands (which can be done without compromising the original five) and address the
interests of those in G.P., such as weights,
family visits, the question of prison labor
and wages, etc. These are issues that concern all prisoners, S.N.Y. and solid alike,
and therefore we should be appealing and
accepting support from all corners of the
prison system.
If we are to resuscitate life back into
our struggle, we must adjust our tactics
to meet the changing conditions. If there
are any amongst the leadership or anyone
politically conscious, who are still dedi-

cated to our original goals, I believe we can
achieve this with a small group of strikers
consisting of 10, 15, maybe 20 “volunteers” willing to fast consecutively one at
a time (or in pairs?) to the end. Each striker
could initiate his fast with a new striker on
standby joining in at 20-day intervals. And
with leadership guidance and blessing, this
could be complemented with a state with a
statewide prisoner work-stoppage and halt
of all movement.
Pre-written and recorded statements, interviews, photo, etc., of each “volunteer”
could be provided to various media outlets,
TV, radio, newspapers, internet, etc., prior
to each striker initiating his fast, preventing
the CDC from denying or sweeping deaths
under the rug with minimal publicity.
This may seem drastic but have we not
already lost life with each strike, while not
accomplishing anything substantial? Nonetheless, I know this is a controversial issue
with many sides and aspects to it and a proposal of this magnitude needs to be put on
the table and discussed. And although the
Comrade Ed and I are probably in more or
less agreement with my analysis, we have
gone back and forth on the issue of a smaller strike of dedicated “volunteers.” I believe that we have both made valid points,
but we would encourage both the leadership and other potential volunteers for their
contribution to this discussion. ●

October 14, 2014, Forbes magazine recently published a map char ng the largest female prison popula ons
in the world. As you can see, it's not even close. Ci ng data from the Interna onal Center for Prison Studies,
Niall McCarthy of Sta sta visualizes how the United States housed nearly one-third of the globe's incarcerated women in 2013. It's a huge problem the American public has only begun to recognize.

11

PRISONERS
FREED QUICKLY
AFTER VOTERS
OK MEASURE
By Don Thompson, AP
ballot measure passed by voters
this week is already freeing California suspects from jail as their
felony charges are reduced to misdemeanors and people previously convicted of the
charges receive reduced sentences as they
appear in court.
Sheriffs across the state immediately began implementing Proposition 47, which
calls for treating shoplifting, forgery, fraud,
petty theft and possession of small amounts
of drugs, including cocaine, heroin and
methamphetamine, as misdemeanors instead of felonies.
More than 60 inmates held for those
charges were released from the Stanislaus
County jail in the past few days, including
a man arrested for his third felony strike,
which was reduced to a misdemeanor under the new law, said Sheriff Adam Christianson.
“I released a three-striker today, first time
I’ve ever done that in my career,” he said
Friday. “A longtime career criminal who’d
been sentenced for felony theft with prior
convictions. We recalculated his sentence
credits, so he’s out the door.”
Due to overcrowding and court-ordered
caps in Stanislaus County jails, misdemeanor offenders generally are not booked
or held for more than a few days.
In Sacramento, two dozen suspects
walked out of the Sacramento County jail
two days after 58 percent of voters approved the initiative on Tuesday. They
were among the more than 400 Sacramento
jail inmates expected to be freed while they
await trial on reduced charges that in many
cases will no longer keep people behind
bars after arrests.
Other sheriffs immediately changed arrest policies while they reviewed which
inmates qualify for release. Meanwhile,
inmates in state prison on the charges can
petition for release.
It appears the measure intended to save
hundreds of millions of dollars a year in reduced prison and jail costs is already having that effect. Under the initiative, savings
will be diverted to rehabilitation programs
intended to reduce crime, though the programs will lag far behind the criminals’

A

12

release.
Hours after the bill passed, Fresno County deputies were instructed to stop jailing
people arrested on the lower-level crimes,
said Sheriff Margaret Mims. Suspects there
and in other counties are now issued citations similar to traffic tickets and ordered
to appear in court.
The state corrections department began
notifying nearly 4,800 inmates in California prisons that they can petition judges to
have their felony convictions and sentences reduced. Convicts serving time for the
felonies in local jails can also petition for
release.
The initiative is projected to keep about
4,000 inmates out of state prisons each
year, more than enough to help the state
meet a population cap ordered by federal
judges.
Emily Harris, statewide coordinator for
the group Californians United for a Responsible Budget, which backed the initiative, said lower-level offenders don’t deserve lengthy jail or prison terms even if
they can’t immediately benefit from crime
prevention programs.
Proponents will be watching to make
sure the corrections board, which is dominated by law enforcement officials, doesn’t
siphon the money off for jail programs, or
that the truancy money isn’t used for more
school police officers, Harris said.
Bee staff writer Erin Tracy contributed to
this report.
http://www.modbee.com/news/local/
crime/article3654760.html

CONFRONTING
THE BATTERED
CITIZEN
SYNDROME
By James F. Tracy
tate-sponsored terrorism poses a significant challenge to the psychological well-being of the body politic.
While evident in many geopolitical locales,
this condition arising from such government abuses is especially prevalent in the
West. Such a disorder is comparable to the
psychological manipulation recognized
on a micro-level in some spousal relationships.
Indeed, the 13-year-old “war on terror”
has contributed to a grave societal malady
that might be deemed “battered citizen syndrome.” As the project of a transnational

S

New World Order is laid out, the psychological constitution of the polity must necessarily experience perpetual crises and the
threat thereof. Genuinely non-conventional
political communication, organization and
activism are among the few substantial
means of combating battered citizen syndrome and the spiritual and psychological
slavery it perpetuates.
Battered citizen syndrome is an extremely damaging psychological condition
impacting individuals who are collectively
subjected to emotional abuse and political
disenfranchisement by the psychopathic
types that all-too-frequently occupy public office in an era of political and socioeconomic decay. The condition is often the
result of “false flag” terrorism initiated by
a tyrannical state that has long grown unresponsive to the citizen’s actual needs. This
syndrome subdues individuals’ awareness
of their own historical and political agency,
and discourages them from seeking assistance for and ultimately remedying their
unsafe situation.
There are various stages one will experience as a result of this condition. When
persons in the singular or aggregate undergo the threat or experience of state violence
in the form of false flag terror (i.e., political assassinations, seemingly spontaneous
bombings or shootings, gigantic skyscrapers falling inexplicably at free-fall speed,
CIA-sponsored terror bogeys such as Al
Qaeda and ISIS, and perhaps even deadly
plagues) they will find it expedient to deny
such exploitation and decline to admit they
are being manipulated by a paranoid and
psychopathic state. Corporate-owned or
controlled mass media routinely propagating the notion of “free choice” and personal
agency by touting the supposed integrity of
electoral processes and political institutions actively aid in this denial.
Once a victim accepts the fact that such
manipulation is taking place, they will feel
remorse. Victims will often believe that
the abuse is their fault and not the fault of
criminal governance. Eventually, a victim
of state terror and violence will realize that
they are not to blame for the cruelty they
are being subjected to. Despite this realization, the individual will typically choose to
remain in the abusive relationship. It may
take some time, but eventually the truly
self-respecting citizen-victim will understand that in order to defend themselves
and their loved ones from harm they must
escape their injurious relationship. These
stages can be observed in many of the vicRock!

tims who have ultimately recognized and
escaped their relationships with an abusive
state.
Denial
The first stage of battered citizen syndrome is denial. Denial occurs when a victim of abuse is unable to acknowledge and
accept that they are being subjected to political violence in the form of false flag terror and contrived events. During this stage,
a victim of such psychological abuse will
not only avoid admitting the mistreatment
to their friends and their family members,
but they themselves will not acknowledge
the brutality from which they suffering.
They will fail to recognize any problems
between themselves and their government.
There are numerous factors that may contribute to such steadfast denial.
In many instances, an individual does not
realize they are being subjected to such calculating state violence. This is largely due
to the manipulative and coercive behavior
of the offending government. The acts of
abuse may be so subtle that they do not appear to be harmful or damaging. In other
instances, a victim of Machiavellian offenses may suppose that denial is the most
effective way to avoid being subjected to
further violence and cruelty. Whatever the
cause, denial is extremely unhelpful to the
victim. Until citizens individually and collectively admit and confront the abuses
they are experiencing, they will not be able
to secure necessary psychic and material
aid and protection.
Guilt
After a citizen experiences the denial
period they will move on the guilt stage.
During this phase, victims of such coercive
violence will undergo feelings of extreme
guilt and dishonor by being fingered as potential terrorists themselves. Through the
suggestion that they may also be terrorists,
citizens will believe they may have somehow caused the harm that in reality elements within their exploitative government
has subjected them to.
Abusive governments stage false flag
terror events not only to create confusion, but also induce guilt in their subjects.
Professional political and opinion leaders
prompt feelings of guilt through similar
rhetorical appeals. Those of the liberal or
“progressive” sort in particular claim that
such events are the result of “blow back,”
due to the given nation’s foreign policy and
imperialist overreach. Similarly, conservaVolume 3, Number 12

tives assert that the nation has been victimized because it has been too forthright in
parading its “freedoms.”
Once internalized, “war on terror” guilt
ideation is reinforced via the messaging
slogans of state agencies. Typical messaging may include communications such as,
“Is your neighbor or coworker a homegrown extremist?” “Keep your luggage
with you at all times,” “Step this way after
removing your shoes and valuables,” and
so on.
Regardless of guilt stimulus, feelings of
culpability are used to exert further control
via rituals of submission, such as enacting
excessive and unwarranted security measures to partake in travel, gain access to
a public building, or withdraw cash from
one’s bank account.
Along these lines, the offending government will convince the victim that it must
resort to physical violence in order to punish the citizenry for their negative qualities
or behavior. They may threaten or enact
violence to teach the citizen not to take part
in the activities of which it disapproves or
finds inconvenient, such as public demonstrations and civil disobedience.
In addition to such acts, tyrannical governments strip citizens of their civil liberties and establish or strengthen a police
state in order to further expand their control. As a result, the citizen’s already low
self-esteem and depression will accelerate
downward. Once this occurs, it is not difficult to convince the victim that they are
being subjected to abuse due to their own
faults and inadequacies. If they could only
be more dependent on the state and live
up to its expectations, they would not be
experiencing state terror and exploitation.
Victims of such manipulation will believe
this. Therefore, they will not contest the
abuse being experienced because they have
rationalized that their abusive government
is not to blame for such cruelty.
Enlightenment
One of the most important phases of the
battered citizen’s syndrome is enlightenment. This occurs when a target of abuse
recognizes how they are not to blame for
their ill-treatment. They will begin to understand that no one deserves to be subjected to state-inflicted terror and violence
regardless of their personal characteristics
or perceived shortcomings. The fact that
the state seeks to manipulate their subjects
and exhibits disapproval of their victim’s
behavior does not justify exposing the vic-

tim to the trauma prompted by terrorist
threats and violence.
During this stage, a citizen will begin to
acknowledge that most states are abusive,
violent, overseen by psychopathic personalities, and thus the violence experienced
is the result of an external socio-political
condition and not inherent in themselves.
It is now that a victim begins to realize the
importance of coming to terms with their
situation and holding those in power accountable.
Despite the realization that their fear,
anxiety, and loss of civil liberties likely
stem from the broader designs of treacherous individuals in power, victims will continue to accept overzealous state power and
commit themselves to saving the seriously
flawed relationship. They will often use
various reasons in order to justify this decision. However, individuals who choose to
remain in such an environment will soon
find that in most cases the tyrannical government will only increase the severity of
its abuses.
Responsibility
Once a citizen recognizes how the psychological torment and terroristic violence
they are suffering from is the fault of their
government, it is only a matter of time before these victims understand the importance of taking responsibility and escaping their current situation. In the majority
of cases, state violence does not improve
over time. Most governments subjecting
their citizens to violence and brutality are
“repeat offenders” and will continue to
reinforce control by exposing subjects to
heightened abuses. When an individual acknowledges this, they will understand that
their safety, and the safety of their loved
ones, depends on establishing new modes
of governance. During the responsibility
stage of the battered citizen’s syndrome, a
victim of state violence may experience a
vast array of difficulties.
It is essential that an individual plan their
escape well. Citizens who have decided
to depart from their unfavorable situation
should avoid the enticements of major political parties that are usually the root cause
of battered citizen syndrome.
If a victim would like support and advice
about leaving their abusive relationship
they may wish to contact or support a third
party candidate running for public office.
Citizen violence shelters in the form of information derived from alternative news
Battered Citizen ..... Continued on page 19
13

BOOK REVIEW: “OUT OF CONTROL” BY NANCY KURSHAN
A Revolutionary’s Perspective
By Kijana Yashiri Askakri (Footnotes by
Ed Mead)
“All human activity is collective—a
combination of the work and inspiration
shaped by those who came before us and
those who labor with us.”
-Nancy Kurshan
very aspiring prison rights activist,
both captive and non-captive, that
has a desire to qualitatively learn
and to develop themselves into becoming
a professionally trained activists, so as to
be effective through the course of their
line of work, must read and study Nancy
Kurshan’s book “Out of Control.” I highly
suggest that study groups be formulated, so
as to advance and build upon the organizational framework she has provided for the
people, to which has been conceptualized
in simple and easy to read language. The
book at its core, illustrates countless examples of mutual-aid-and-cooperation, along
with emphasizing the importance of having clearly established goals and objectives
that can be reasonably achieved.
Nancy Kurshan does an excellent job of
highlighting the significance of a 15 year
(1985 to 200) struggle, the was waged and
became manifest in their collective efforts
to end the lockdown at Marion Federal
Prison, that is located in the state of Illinois
to which morphed into one of Amerikkka’s
notorious control unit and isolation-based
torture chamber (e.g. solitary confinement).
As with any struggle that is geared towards movement building, it begins with
the idea of an individual and/or individuals,
which was the case with the Committee to
End the Marion Lockdown (CEML), when
its founding members Nancy Kurshan, Jan
Susler, and Steve Whitman initially just
wanted to educate the people by exposing to the public, the systemic practices
of social, political, economical, and racial
injustices, that are inherent in the Prison
Industrial Slave Complex (e.g. PISC). And
in addition to how these contradictions impact and affect our communities. It wasn’t
long before their work took on a life of its
own—a life molded by their relentless strategic planning and organizing.
Unbeknownst to many in society, the
construct of solitary confinement units,
were originally modeled after the “diabolical techniques” of the mad scientist Dr.
Edgar Schein of MIT, where he provided a

E

14

blueprint on how to break and brainwash
the Chinese prisoners of war via his book
“Coercive Persuasion.” Nancy Kurshan excerpts a passage from his book, wherein it
states:
“In order to produce marked changes of
attitude and/or behavior, it is necessary to
weaken, undermine, or remove the supports of the old attitudes. Because most of
these supports are the face to face confirmation of present behavior and attitudes,
which are provided by those with whom
close emotional ties exist, it is often necessary to break these emotional ties. This can
be done either by removing the individual
physically and preventing any communication with those whom cares about, or by
proving to him that those whom he respects
are not worthy of it, and, indeed, should be
actively mistreated.
I would like to have you think of brainwashing not in terms of politics, ethics,
and morals, but in terms of the deliberate
changing of human behavior and attitude
by a group of men over who have relatively
complete control over and environment in
which the captive populace lives.” Page 12
of “Out of Control.”
The context of this is relative to the CDCr’s gang validation policies and practices,
in particular, in relation to CDCr’s newly
created “How to Make a Slave” Step Down
Program (SDP), where prisoners have
been targeted/persecuted with the same
purpose and objectives in mind—to break
and brainwash us! Pelican Bay’s counter
intelligence unit (IGI) has successfully destroyed/neutralized the only real outside
community support that I had, when they
falsely accused my beloved lil’ sista [Name
omitted by Ed] of promoting gang activity
via a letter she sent me, to tell that Black
Panther Party (BPP) members were going
to be attending/supporting a community
event, that was being held on my behalf, at
Lil’ Bobby Hutton’s Park in West Oakland.
Instrumental in the CEML’s successful
grass root organizing was several key factors, such as:
Their multi-faceted approach, as to how
they took to accomplishing various tasks.
They make a point of not just up and involving themselves in activities—if they
could avoid it. This allowed them to preserve and maximize their limited resources.
For example, they would initiate plans 3, 6
or 12 months in advance, containing spe-

cific goals particular, in relation to CDCr’s
newly created “How To Mark a Slave”
Step Down Program, where prisoners have
been targeted/persecuted with the same
purpose and objectives that they wanted to achieve in their line of work. This
provided their personnel with organizational structure (leadership), which armed
them with the tools to modify their tactics, when circumstances warranted such.
This point is significant, as many activists
find themselves becoming over-whelmed,
burnt-out, and worn-down rather quickly, as they are often operating upon their
emotional subjectivity that is associated
with being outraged—over how the people
they’re attempting to aid and assist, is being
oppressed by as racist and diabolical system of government! This typically clouds
an activist’s ability to creatively assess the
fact that victories often won’t be achieved
over night—especially without any organizational structure in place to compartmentalize their work.1
1. Their collaborative work with political prisoner like Sundiata Acoi, Oscar
Lopez Rivera, Alejandrina Torres, Bill
Dunne, Safiya Bukhari, Hanif-Bey, Carlos A. Torres, Silvia Baraldini, and Susan Rosenberg, to which later included
the prisoners that were also being subjected to various human rights abuses.
The relationships that were forged out
of this crucible, enabled human bridges
to be constructed, wherein CEML members were able to learn, hands on, of the
contradictions that plagued this slave
kamp (Marion Prion)2, and other like
it. Thus allowing CEML to be equipped
with the necessary tools to achieve their
objectives, while providing substantive
support to prisoners. Pivotal in this exchange, was CEML’s functional appreciation of Democracy, through the course
of staying in contact with the prisoners,
but more importantly, including the prisoners in the decision-making process
when strategizing for a particular action
and or community event. This protected
prisoners from being left nameless face1. Let us remember that cri cism is a two way street.
When we discuss the burn out of outside volunteers
let us not neglect to men on our fault for this burn
out—our pu ng too much work or making too many
demands on our few outside volunteers.
2. I was a prisoner at the Marion Federal Prison during
some of that period and I too was very ac ve in the
struggle against not only that prison’s degrading behavior modifica on program, but all such programs.

Rock!

less, and voiceless, when the reality of
the issues directly pertained to prisoners
being brutalized, tormented, and dehumanized in every extreme by our oppressors!
2. CEML understood the importance of
having organizational infrastructure,
wherein they constantly distributed
pamphlets, leaflets, flyers, brochures,
and other propaganda based materials,
wire their work. Shops, seminars, study
groups, etc. That they held to educate
the people, about their line of work.
This insured the basis of, clearly define
organizational expectations being set
for, which made it easier for CEML to
receive the support from the community by other people wanting to become
CEML members; volunteering her time
or donating funds and other essential resources for their work.
3. CEML did not limit the focus of their
primary objectives, to just ending the
lockdown at Marion, they also instituted
additional campaigns, they became interconnect (secondary) to their pursuits.
For example, the prisoners at Marion
were being forced to drink, shower, and
wash themselves in toxic polluted water! The exposure of this contradiction,
brought about outrage from the environmentalist in our community this allowed
CEML to forge a united front with them.
And this was a pivotal tactic, when you
account for the fact, that, CEML only
had 10 to 15 core members throughout
their entire 15 your struggle. This is extremely impressive!
Close this with a clenched fist salute to
Nancy Kurshan in the entire CEML staff
for a job well done, but more importantly
— for having a wherewithal, to share
their struggle of life’s experience with
the people. So again, everyone to read
and study Nancy Kurshan’s book “Out
of Control” for free on the Freedom
Archives website, and build upon the
framework that she has provided us. The
book is available online at" http://www.
freedomarchives.org/Out_of_Control/
index.html.3 ●
Build to win.
For more information contact:
Kijana Tashiri Askari
S/N Marcus Harrison #-H54077
P.B.S.P.
P.O. Box 7500 D3-122 SHU
Crescent City, CA 95531
3. If you don’t like reading a whole book online you
can order a hard copy of the book from either Freedomarchives.org or amazon.com, etc.

Volume 3, Number 12

REPORT TO U.N. CALLS BULLSHIT
ON OBAMA’S ‘LOOK FORWARD,
NOT BACKWARDS’ APPROACH TO
TORTURE
By Murtaza Hussain, “The Intercept”
10-31-14
onths after President Obama
frankly admitted that the United
States had “tortured some folks”
as part of the War on Terror, a new report
submitted to the United Nations Committee Against Torture has been released that
excoriates his administration for shielding
the officials responsible from prosecution.
The report describes the post-9/11 torture
program as “breathtaking in scope”, and
indicts both the Bush and Obama administrations for complicity in it – the former
through design and implementation, and
the latter through its ongoing attempts to
obstruct justice. Noting that the program
caused grievous harm to countless individuals and in many cases went as far as murder, the report calls for the United States to
“promptly and impartially prosecute senior
military and civilian officials responsible
for authorizing, acquiescing, or consenting
in any way to acts of torture.”
In specifically naming former President
George W. Bush, Department of Justice
lawyer John Yoo and former CIA contractor James Mitchell, among many others,
as individuals who sanctioned torture at
the highest levels, the report highlights a
gaping hole in President Obama’s promise
to reassert America’s moral standing during his administration. Not only have the
cited individuals not been charged with any
crime for their role in the torture program,
Obama has repeatedly reiterated his mantra of “looking forward, not backwards” to
protect them from accountability.
Needless to say, you shouldn’t try that
defense in court if you’re an ordinary
American on trial for, say, a drug crime.
It’s also worth remembering that, horrific
as it was, the torture regime described in
the report was only a tiny part of the wideranging human rights abuses the United
States committed after 9/11. It doesn’t even
account for the network of prisons where
hundreds of thousands of people were detained in Iraq and Afghanistan – many of
whom suffered beatings, rape and murder
at the hands of U.S. soldiers.
The environment that allowed such treatment was again authorized at the highest

M

levels, but just as with the CIA program
the only people to receive any legal sanction for these actions have been low-level
soldiers who’ve essentially been used as
scapegoats for the crimes of their superiors.
By refusing to prosecute Bush-era officials for their culpability in major human
rights abuses such as the CIA program and
Abu Ghraib, President Obama is not just
failing to enforce justice but is essentially
guaranteeing that such abuses will happen
again in the future. His administration has
demonstrated that even if government officials perpetrate the most heinous crimes
imaginable, they will still be able to rely
on their peers to conceal their wrongdoing
and protect them from prosecution. This
not only erodes the rule of law, it also helps
create a culture of impunity that will inevitably give rise to such actions once again.
The UN report cites former Yale Law
School Dean Harold Koh as describing the
Bush administration’s legal definition of
torture as, “so narrow that it would have
exculpated Saddam Hussein.” To his credit
Barack Obama has finally called a spade
a spade and identified Bush officials actions for what they were: torture. Having
done so, it’s now incumbent on him to stop
protecting the officials who authorized this
crime from legal scrutiny. ●
Source: First Look Media.
[Ed's Note: As a socialist and defender
of democracy and freedom I tend to take
the principles of our rights seriously,
among them:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident,
that all men are created equal, that they are
endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
No mention of citizenship requirements
or place of birth. No mention of the rights
being bestowed by congress, or even the
constitution.
Yet we, arrest, torture, and even kill our
own citizens without a shred of the guaranteed due process of law. We are back in the
1500s, before the Magna Carta (Latin for
Great Charter) which established habeas
corpus among other freedoms. Where are
the outraged mobs of Americans? Watching America's Greatest Idol, of course.]
15

3RD HUNGER
STRIKE AT NW
DETENTION
CENTER
Over 200 hunger strikers

I

mmigrant detainees are putting their
bodies on the line for the third time
this year, to call attention to the inhumane treatment in the GEO Group detention center. Geo Group, a corporate giant
that profits off the unnecessary suffering of
those it imprisons for the convenience of
ICE, while their civil immigration status is
investigated. Advocates are concerned that
hunger strikers will suffer retaliation similar to the retaliation inflicted during previous hunger strikes. Hunger strikers were
placed in solitary confinement for up to
30 days and threatened with force-feeding.
Last spring hunger strikers received unfulfilled promises from ICE officials.
Geo Group has been allowed to supplement their lavish compensation of more
than $100 per day per person with a cluster of self-reinforcing schemes to profit
even more from the people placed in their
“care.” Those schemes include:
• Unwholesome meals with insufficient
nutrients
• High commissary prices for food and
other items
• Using the labor of detainees paid at the
rate of $1 per day to prepare the meals,
do the cleaning and laundry
• Charge fees to families to provide money to the detainees
Geo provides inadequate nourishment
which creates a demand for commissary
food at inflated prices, which induces detainees to work for essentially no pay and
then profits from families’ contributions to
those commissary accounts.
Cipriano Rios, one of the hunger strike
leaders, provided supporters with the following information this weekend. Just today 35 more people joined, making a total
of close to 200 detainees in hunger strike.
We are certain that if it wasn’t for all the
communication restrictions we face, more
detainees would have joined, reaching
more than two thirds of the total population. Our action is in the name of justice,
hunger for freedom; therefore the hunger
of the body, for most of us, is not above
the claim for justice. Not one more! Stop
families destruction!
Colectiva de Detenidos NWDC
16

NEWS SHORTS
Iraqi Doctors Call US
Depleted Uranium Use
"Genocide"
Official Iraqi government statistics show
that, prior to the outbreak of the first Gulf
War in 1991, the country's rate of cancer
cases was 40 out of 100,000 people. By
1995, it had increased to 800 out of 100,000
people, and, by 2005, it had doubled to at
least 1,600 out of 100,000 people
http://truth-out.org/news/item/26703iraqi-doctors-call-depleted-uranium-usegenocide

The Real Secret of Iraq's
Germ Weapons
In October some old chemical weapon
shells were found buried in Iraq. These
were not WMDs, but a few leftovers from
Iraq's 1980s war with Iran. Some research
shows the chemical warfare manufacturing
equipment came from Germany, France
and Holland. The feed stock for the germ
weapons came from a US laboratory in
Maryland—approved by the US government.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.
info/article40011.htm

19-Year-Old Dies Naked On
Cell Floor Of Gangrene
Three times last year Madison County
jailers watched small-time criminals die
before their eyes, according to a series of
three lawsuits filed in federal court. Each
argues that Madison County withholds the
most basic medical care in order to save
money, banking on the insurance of the
medical contractor to cover any resulting
lawsuits.
http://www.al.com/news/index.
ssf/2014/10/gangrene_and_broken_bones_
kill.html

Poland Objects Human Rights
Abuse Charges
Poland is to ask the European Court of
Human Rights to re-consider its ruling that
Poland violated its human rights commitments by hosting a secret CIA jail on its
soil, the prosecutor general was quoted as
saying on Tuesday.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/10/21/
uk-cia-prisons-poland-idUKKCN0IA14K20141021

47% Of Incomes are Below
The Poverty Line
Forty-seven percent of Americans have
incomes under twice the official poverty
rate, making half of the country either poor
or near-poor, according to figures released
last week by the Census Bureau.
These figures are based on the Census
Bureau’s Supplemental Poverty Measure
(SPM), which takes into account government transfers and the regional cost-ofliving in calculating the poverty rate. According to that calculation, there were 48.7
million people in poverty in the United
States, three million higher than the official
census figures released last month.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.
info/article40036.htm

In Defense of Extremism
No one calls themselves a terrorist; no
group calls itself extreme. When you see
those words in print or spoken by a broadcaster, therefore, you know you are looking
at a smear, an insult, lazy shorthand masquerading as argument.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.
info/article40050.htm

Drone of Damocles
John Kerry says all those fired at by
drones in Pakistan are "confirmed terrorist targets" - but with 1,675 unnamed dead
how do we know when only 4 per cent of
those killed by US drone strikes are named
members of al-Qaeda, it's hard to trust
American foreign policy
http://tinyurl.com/l9edqgn

Imprisoned Nation
In 1970 California’s population was 16
million and 10,000 of those were incarcerated at a cost of $500 million per year. In
2008 California’s population is 34 million,
yet there are 176,000 are incarcerated at a
cost of $11 billion per year (cost includes
average base salary of $74,000 per state
prison employee). There are currently 2.38
million people in US prisons, 1 in every 32
people are in the criminal justice system
in the US (includes probation & parole).
Where does it end? When half the population is prisoners and the other half are
prison guards?
We don't want to be parasites on society.
We need jobs, not more jails!
Rock!

KEEPING NON-VIOLENT
WOMEN IN CALIFORNIA
PRISONS
By Jessica Pishko
n 2011, under mounting pressure to decrease the prison population, the California Department of Corrections and
Rehabilitation (CDCR) created the Alternative Custody Program (ACP). It’s a program designed to forge a path for low-level
female inmates to return home (under electronic surveillance), care for their children,
and reintegrate into their communities. The
policy is currently the subject of a lawsuit
claiming that it discriminates on the basis
of sex, but in theory, it seems like a prison
authority might have finally gotten something right.
That’s what Cynthia thought when she
appeared before the panel (called an Institution Classification Committee in CDCR
lingo) after applying for ACP. After getting
her paperwork straightened out and applying three times, she was told she was denied. She needed a teeth cleaning before
her application could be processed.
Another woman was denied because of
a computer error: Her dentistry was up to
date, but a bureaucrat hadn’t changed her
status, so she remained behind bars.
In the offices of California Coalition for
Women Prisoners (CCWP), letters (which
you can readhere) have piled high from
women who want to return home to their
families and repent for their crimes. But
very few of the eligible inmates are given
a real chance to take advantage of the opportunities that ACP promised. In one of
the letters, an inmate named Anna wrote:
“I know I’ve made mistakes in my life, but
I’m ready for a change. Yes, I’ve been in
and out of prison, but don’t only look at
my record, look at what I did and all my
programs.” Anna is currently in prison for
identity fraud. She has not been released.
Michelle, who has four children at home,

I

Volume 3, Number 12

was denied ACP
because of a mistake in classification—her
crime
was embezzlement,
but it was mistakenly classified as “violent,” rendering her
ineligible. Misty Rojo, the program coordinator at CCWP, has received reports from
women who were denied release because
they had a pit bull as a pet and because they
received medication for a treatable medical
condition like high blood pressure.
Before the women are released under
ACP, they’re subject to a pre-release interview that includes sensitive questions
about their histories of abuse and other
mental anguish. The Justice Department
has determined that at least half of all female inmates have been victims of physical or sexual abuse and one-third have been
raped prior to incarceration, and appearing
to harbor lingering psychological trauma
from this abuse can prevent release. Even
worse, the people asking these questions
aren’t licensed therapists, according to
Rojo, and they intentionally ask questions
that cause the women to break down into
tears and then accuse the women of being
“mentally unstable,” which means they are
not eligible for release.
That’s what an inmate named Theresa
claimed happened to her in a letter she
wrote to CCWP explaining that she “was
not prepared for what took place in my ACP
classification hearing.” Theresa met all of
the criteria for ACP and had no disciplinary
actions. She participated in programs like
Alcoholics Anonymous and anger management. But in her hearing she was asked
about her suicide attempts as a minor as
well as her childhood and adult molestation and rape. She
felt blindsighted by
the process and dejected at the result,
which was a denial
of her ACP application.
These
stories
help to illustrate
why out of the
estimated
4,000
women eligible for

ACP, only 420 have been released in the
three years the program has been active.
(The CDCR told me that it did not keep
track of how many ACP petitions were
denied.) California’s prisons are overflowing—so why is the state trying to keep its
women inmates behind bars?
Women are one of the fastest-growing
segments of America’s prison population,
and more thanhalf of these women—at
least in California—are non-violent offenders. Women, along with gender-nonconforming inmates, are also some of the
most vulnerable inside prison; rates of inmate-on-inmate sexual violence are higher
among women than men. Even further, it’s
estimated that 75 percent of incarcerated
women are the primary caretakers of their
children, meaning that their imprisonment
leaves a trail of disaster for their families.
In the policy debates over California’s
deplorable prison system, women’s prisons have frequently fallen by the wayside.
Overcrowding leads to a range of obvious
problems, from overuse of solitary confinement and more frequent lockdowns (since
there are too many inmates for the staff to
control) to a lack of basic supplies and unsanitary conditions. But perhaps the most
severe indirect consequence of overcrowding is poor medical care for the inmates. In
December 2013, a court-appointed panel of
medical experts issued an independent report condemning the conditions at CCWF
citing a litany of institutional deficiencies.
More shockingly, an investigation this
summer by the Center for Investigative
Reporting discovered that nearly 150 female inmates were given unauthorized
sterilizations between 2006 and 2010 at
CCWF, CIW, and Valley State. A new bill
just signed by Governor Brown last month
supposedly outlaws the practice once and
for all.
CCWF and CIW have been the target of
scrutiny for poor medical care for nearly
two decades, but instead of releasing female prisoners who are unlikely to pose
17

harm—thus, potentially alleviating some
of these issues—Governor Jerry Brown recently signed a contract worth $9 million a
year with GEO Group, the second-largest
private prison contracting company, to take
over a prison facility in McFarland, California that will house about 260 women
(with an option to double its size). Press releases for the prison claim that the facility
will boast services like job training, drug
programs, and other therapeutic interventions, although there is no guarantee that
transferred inmates will be able to continue
any of their current programming.

Art by Michael Russell

But the move is not an auspicious one.
While the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) doesn’t
have the best track record, it looks like a
luxury hotel compared to GEO Group,
which is the subject of hundreds of lawsuits
for violence, mistreatment, and poor medical care in its facilities.
In 2010, the ACLU filed a lawsuit on
behalf of an epileptic Texas man who died
from an untreated seizure while in solitary
confinement. GEO Group was called out
for the abysmal conditions in a Mississippi
juvenile facility by a federal judge, who
held that the private company allowed “a
cesspool of unconstitutional and inhuman
acts and conditions to germinate.” On top
of concerns about privatized prisons, the
latest outcry over the proposed McFarland
facility crystallizes the ongoing problem
of California’s women’s prisons, facilities
plagued by scandals and problems that remain largely out of the public eye.
While the GEO contract might temporarily alleviate overcrowding, it doesn’t
18

solve the real problem, which would be to
allow the release of non-violent offenders
and maintain the programs that help these
women reintegrate into their communities.
(ACP, by the way, provides no assistance
for women seeking employment or housing.)
The popularity of Orange Is the New
Black has drawn attention to the plight of
women in prison. When I talk with people
about prisons, I often hear how difficult it
is for these women to speak up about their
treatment because they have felt so consistently ignored by prison authorities who
operate in a system dominated by hypermasculine principles. The CDCR, like all
prison regimes, lacks accountability because their decisions are always shrouded
under the guise of “public safety,” something no politician seems bold enough to
question.
Women inmates are less likely to riot or
institute hunger strikes, which emboldens
the CDCR to ignore them because they are
less in the public eye—contrast, for example, the very public hunger strikes at Pelican Bay with the relative silence at CCWF.
These women suffer from what is called a
“double invisibility,” hidden from the public’s eyes because no one will take the time
to listen. ●
http://www.vice.com/read/women-arebecoming-second-class-citizens-in-californias-prisons-114

Art and words by Kevin "Rashid" Johnson

DOES ROCK HAVE
A FUTURE?

U

nfortunately for those who have
made recent donations of money
or stamps (we are talking about
$22.50 in checks and about 30 stamps) will
not be getting refunds, although they will
received the appropriate number of any future issues of Rock that might come out.
It cost me over a buck to get this double
issue into your hands, and there would have
been 599 others just like you. If you’ve donated recently, or if you plan to contribute
something in the future, your name will be
added to the new Rock mailing list and, the
next time we get the money for an issue,
with only 61 of you, it wont' be long before
you’ll get another copy of the newsletter.
If you paid for a subscription and have
not received your full 12 issues, you will
be getting any future issues that are printed
until your subscription term expires. If, on
the other hand, you sent me a $15 subscription in July of 2014, but you've been receiving the newsletter free since 2012, then
you have no subscription at all. You have
paid for one of the two free years. The point
here is that nobody should lose money unless you all inside just totally kick me to the
curb. Then 61 readers will be out of luck.
Want to know how bad it is? Out of a
California mailing list of 433, when those
whose subscriptions had expired or who
had not paid enough were removed, we had
only 61 remaining. The 372 prisoners who
allowed their subscriptions to expire, or
otherwise not paid, is the financial burden
Mark and I have been carrying for most all
of 2014. The number of 61 paid readers,
includes complementary subs to sister publications, such as Turning the Tide and S.F.
Bay View, and free subs to those who have
given artwork to the newsletter. Donations
of articles does not keep you on the list, as
publishing is your duty.
The Rock mailing lists (California,
Washington, Oregon, and Texas) have been
gone through and anyone who is not paid
to date, or whose subscription has expired,
has been deleted. A new mailing list has
been developed and will consist of only
those few (61) who have recently contributed or those who actually do contribute
something in the future.
When enough in stamps and money have
been donated then we will publish an issue of Rock. That might be every month or
once a year or never—it depends entirely
Rock!

ANDY’S FIGHT
300 MILES NORTH, THE MURDER OF ANDY LOPEZ WAS
HEARD IN THE SHU AT
CSP – PELICAN BAY

Movement elders Mark Cook Left, Ed Mead,
Right Photo taken at Sheridan Federal
Prison in Oregon, September of 1993. Both
were doing armed Bank robbery convictions

on you. I’ll leave a subscription form on
the back page, just in case folks want to see
if we can make this work again.
Now what about the 167 readers in the
states of Washington, Oregon, and Texas?
Washington has two paid subscribers, one
gave $15 and the other $1,000 (his subscription will last longer than me). Oregon
has one $15 subscription. And I have one
$15 subscription from Texas. Those are
the only ones who will get future issues of
Rock. We'll grow or die from there.
Anyone with subscription or money
questions should let me know, but if you
want a response you must enclose a SASE.
I can't afford to spend fifty cents every time
I write a letter to a prisoner.
Lastly, outside people should not send
me money for the newsletter (or for any
reason other than a subscription). This is
a prisoner publication and if prisoners do
not support it then there is no reason for its
existence. We did well for two years, back
when there was a struggle, but this year,
in the absence of struggle, when some of
the inside leadership went into the state's
behavior modification programs, it's been
a financial bust in terms of the newsletter.
It sort of feels like the wheels are coming
off, like it's back to every man for himself.
Does Rock have a future? That's what we
are deciding now. Each prisoner has a ballot. As always, you vote with your feet.
Ed Mead
Battered.............. Continued from page 13
media, meaningful political discussion and
debate, and grassroots and independent political organizing can also provide victims
with the necessary support to make a clean
break from tyrannical state power that will
ultimately lead toward the forging of more
constructive political realities for themselves and their fellow citizenry. ●
http://memoryholeblog.com
Volume 3, Number 12

Andy Lopez was murdered by a Sonoma County Sheriff in Santa Rosa, California on
October 22nd, 2013. He was only 13 years old. Andy’s murder was deeply felt all over
the world. 300 miles north of Santa Rosa, Jose Villarreal was moved to write and create
art in honor of Andy from his cell in the SHU at CSP – Pelican Bay.
Jose Villarreal is a prolific writer and artist who has spent the last ten years of his life in
the SHU at Pelican Bay. He writes frequently for publications such as California Prison
Focus and The Rock. Everything Jose does he does with purpose and commitment –
including taking part in the most recent prisoner hunger strikes that occurred at Pelican
Bay and elsewhere throughout the California Prison system. Jose has dedicated his life
to struggling for Brown youth, Aztlan and oppressed people everywhere. He could
not sit idle after hearing that Andy Lopez had been murdered and quickly created the
following portrait and poem for and about him. He recognized that Andy’s struggle is
one that we all share – the fight against repression and for liberation. When we fight for
Andy, we fight for all of us.
You’re presence lives on in every struggle against brutality,
a precious life not spared the coarse nature of our reality.
A reflection of life under Amerikkka in these streets,
We yearn for the day youth need not worry about them folks wearing
them dam sheets.
You were not allowed to reach your 14th birthday,
This tragedy was felt all the way up in Pelican Bay.
I was in my windowless cell when I got the news,
mijito in our struggle for justice we will not lose!
Today we are born into a repressive state,
Yet the beauty of the people is shown resisting on your birthdate.
You’re precious life meant more than you would probably ever know,
Your small Brown fist has already dealt them a mighty big blow.
Transformation has started due to this pigs actions,
Look at the mobilization of people from so many factions!
Your fight began the day you were born,
Occupation will continue until struggle becomes the norm.
Today we rebuild with liberation in sight,
there is no way in hell we will abandon Andy’s fight!

POETRY

By Jose Villarreal #H84098
Pelican Bay – State Prison
SHU – C11 – 106
PO Box 7500
Crescent City, CA 95532

Painting of Andy by Jose Villarreal

19

Quote Box

"America's entire war on terror is an
exercise in imperialism. This may come
as a shock to Americans, who don't like
to think of their country as an empire. But
what else can you call America's legions
of soldiers, spooks and special forces
straddling the globe?"
Michael Ignatieff,
New York Times

". . . in America, we have achieved
the Orwellian prediction—enslaved, the
people have been programmed to love
their bondage and are left to clutch only
mirage-like images of freedom, its fables
and fictions. The new slaves are linked
together by vast electronic chains of
television that imprison not their bodies
but their minds. Their desires are programmed, their tastes manipulated, their
values set for them."
Gerry Spence, Freedom to Slavery
"None are more hopelessly enslaved
than those who falsely believe they are
free."
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"There are only two mistakes one can
make along the road to truth; not going all
the way, and not starting."
Buddha
"Search for the truth is the noblest occupation of man; its publication is a duty."
Anne Louise Germaine de Stael
"Everyone thinks of changing the
world, but no one thinks of changing himself."
Leo Tolstoy
"Silence, they say, is the voice of complicity. But silence is impossible. Silence
screams. Silence is a message, just as doing nothing is an act. Let who you are ring
out & resonate in every word & every
deed. Yes, become who you are. There's
no sidestepping your own being or your
own responsibility. What you do is who
you are. You are your own comeuppance.
You become your own message. You are
the message.
In the Spirit of Crazy Horse "
Leonard Peletier

Ed Mead, Publisher
Rock Newsletter
P.O. Box 47439
Seattle, WA 98146

FIRST CLASS MAIL