To My Comrades, Up The Ante

TO MY COMRADES

Comrades, I hope you all are doing well and continuing to resist the excesses of this rapacious system of slavery, exploitation, and oppression. I’m doing great, although I’ve had some rough times lately. But I’m alive and in resistance and find solace in that, along with all that’s happening out there.

Comrades, from all the info I’ve been able to get my hands on there seems to be a heightened level of struggle and movement building in the Black colonies throughout the USA against police violence, racism, white supremacy, and it hasn’t taken long for this movement in infancy to make the connection between the above mentioned ills of US capitalist society and the mass incarceration of Black and Brown people. One participant of a new formation of various organizations/collectives called Third World Resistance (TWR) made the following statement during the #ReclaimMLK demo in Oakland in January: “It is really empowering to see our communities rising up against the violent policing of Black people. But we must also be just as enraged at the violence that is harder to see, the violence of our people disappearing into cages. This country, which locks up more people than any other, plays a hand in locking up even more beyond its borders by exporting and sharing tactics and models of repression with oppressive governments, from Israel to Haiti and the Philippines.”

Connections, the whole matrix between the prison-industrial complex, white supremacy, business, domination, control, and exploitation, etc. That’s what we’re looking for and need to explain in a clear, no bullshit language. This is the point of attack. From all that’s taking place out there I’m really beginning to believe that we just may get to witness the destruction of Leviathan and dance in the ruins of civilization in our lifetime. And it’s having its presence felt in the prisons. Will it translate into action? Who can say? But the slaves are getting restless in here. Bolder. The drugs, TV, sports, gangs, etc. can’t keep us distracted forever. People can’t be so repressed that they can’t fight back in some way. And you all should know that prisoners are really ingenious. I’m taking heart in the rebellions taking place throughout the world, not just in the USA. The only freedom today, now, is in struggle and aggressive free action.

Relentlessly,
Michael.

UP THE ANTE

If we’re serious about destroying oppression in its many forms, prisons are the starting point, especially since the many forms are more concentrated in prison than anywhere else in society, and prisoners are the most defenseless targets of these oppressions, one could argue. Many people try to separate prison struggles from the overall struggle for freedom and call it “The Prison Movement.” I’ve been guilty of this myself at times, but we can’t divorce it from the overall struggle. As anarchists we attack all forms of oppression simultaneously. We try to understand the nexus of the many forms of oppression so we can overcome them, as well as a way to practice freedom NOW, rather than relegating it to some distant future.

Prison has swallowed up millions of people. Those who have been lucky to survive them have problems with housing, jobs, and education, among many other problems stemming from being held captive by the state. Once one has been digested by the state into their prisons, they are forever more targeted for discrimination and further oppression by society. Prisons must be abolished and the only way to end prisons is to destroy the state. Reform is the only outcome of “Prison Movements.” We have to up the ante. We have to make this muthafucka ungovernable.

“They call us criminals and indeed we are criminals when we act outside of laws made by the state. We are free only when we act outside of laws made by the state.”