From a Prisoner in California—The Paper is Censored Here
** Note: This letter was recently sent to Prisoners Revolutionary Literature Fund from an inmate who resides at Pelican Bay State Prison.
Greetings
I send a clenched fist to all who believe a different world is possible. I write this letter from the bloated pregnant belly of the beast. I am a prisoner housed in the California supermax known as Security Housing Unit (SHU).
I was happy to receive word of issue 192 of the paper. Unfortunately at this gulag I'm housed at, the paper is censored here, that's right—the so called land of the free isn't so free. Freedom of the press seems to blur when it comes to be new slaves (prisoners).
But, I did receive word of the special issue, International Women's Day, and I was very excited to hear of the struggles of the Iranian women, in particular against the outdated theocracy that they live under. We stand with the strong Iranian women who are oppressed in their nation. I wanted to send some words on behalf of the Revolutionary prisoners concerning the oppression of women in this country.
Being in prison, the culture is that of the oppression of women, degradation of women on all levels. Most prison cells are covered in photos of scantily clad women or downright pornography or what’s commonly known as 'soft porn'. Movies or sitcoms watched on the Imperialist controlled media outlets are shows where women are the most provocative. Even the prison artists are fixated on drawing women either butt naked or with parts of their bodies spilling out of their clothes, and prisoners are the biggest clients of companies that sell bikini model pictures or lingerie wearing women. For the most part, prisons are a sexual deviant's paradise. Only the most advanced and revolutionary minded prisoners have broken away from this culture of porn that permeates most prisons. The prisoners who are incarcerated for crimes against women do not help the atmosphere of male chauvinism, and frankly add to the pornification that plagues the prison system.
The roots of this backward thinking that befalls U.S. prisoners is mirrored in the society and culture of Capitalist America. The U.S. is a country with a culture of patriarchy, like all capitalist countries, patriarchal relations solidifies and upholds the U.S. ruling class's grip on power. Patriarchy will exist in this country and internationally as long as capitalism remains in power, period.
The chain of oppression continues to hold women down like an anchor. Women worldwide are moored to the bottom rungs of society, often prevented from reaching their full potential. Only a communist world will truly liberate women Internationally.
Prisoners, like all people living in America have been acculturated from birth with ideas of women existing for sex, to birth children, do housework or sell products. Now of course, many parents teach their children that women are equal to men and require respect. This is not what I mean by acculturation. The society we currently live in is saturated with consumerism, everything is for sale, women included. We grow up hearing "sex sells" and watching women draped in jewels or selling cars wearing next to nothing. The porn industry is a billion dollar industry in this country and while printed newspapers fold and go out of business, porn magazines are created everyday and are flourishing.
The poorest in this country who come from the barrios and ghetto projects basically the oppressed nations, often grow up in patriarchal households where mothers or grandmothers raise them at home and are full time "housewives". Growing up in these households complement capitalist society and its degradation of women.
I read about the abortion provider, Dr. Tiller and the fundamentalist nut job who took him down. I was sickened by the capitalist media's coverage of Tiller's death and the supporters of that nut job who felt some supernatural being didn't want to give women the right to do what they choose with their bodies.
If it was up to me, all abortion clinics would be put in the poorest barrios and ghetto projects and then we would see how many whack jobs wanted to stand around all day on these streets! It wouldn't be too long before the people who live in those poor communities educate them in a real way!
It burns me up when I see an advertisement with a seductive woman selling some product. My anger is divided between the corporations who manipulate peoples pornographic conditioning and for people who fall for this. When I think of the many women warriors, those who fought and those who continue to fight for the liberation on all fronts, I think of Betita Martinez, Marilyn Buck, Assata Shakur, Laura Whitehorn, and of course Sunsara Taylor who I have enjoyed reading of her battles and struggles for years now. When I think of women, I think of these strong revolutionary women who stand up and refuse to be silenced- some in prison, some out in society.
During the Mexican Revolution of 1910, under the command of Emiliano Zapata, women played a crucial role and women like Margarita Neri, who became a legendary commander was not mentioned as much as her male counterparts, but the point is, that women have always fought for their freedom, but are often not portrayed as fighters.
Prisoners need to create a new culture, a revolutionary culture in prisons across America where we recognize women as comrades, where we put down the porn and pick up the revolutionary theory, where we stop creating porn art and start creating revolutionary art. I am a political artist—if I don't do revolutionary art, I don't do art at all. We create our environments , so let us politicize our environments and use International Women’s Day as a day to discuss and educate our fellow prisoners to the real role of women, the role of fellow revolutionaries and liberators of all of humanity! Let us take off the capitalist glasses, the patriarchal glasses and see women not for physical beauty but for the beauty of their fighting spirit their liberation drive! This is what attracts me, it attracts me to want to struggle side by side with these women fighters and liberators. Women give us life physically and will give us great lessons in patience as well as sacrifice.
Cosmetic beauty is a product of capitalism it is a tool of oppression and those who cannot grasp this continue to help the imperialists continue the cycle of shackling women and preventing them from reaching their full potential.
I was reading the book Marxism and the Call of the Future: Conversations on Ethics, History and Politics by Bob Avakian and Bill Martin, and Avakian was really digging into the ethical question and in a communist society the possibilities as well as struggles we will endure and he goes on to say that once we have a state that “there are other contradictions that come to the fore as well: the contradictions involved in the emancipation of women, for example, will assume even sharper expression in some ways.”
I thought about this and I understood how much women are oppressed in capitalist america and the contrast in a socialist society would be a huge leap. And so if we had a workers state today contradictions such as women's unequality would be raised to the fore. Women on T.V. would no longer be products on billboards, on T.V. movies or in music videos.
Imagine if a certain nationality was designated so to speak to officially sell all liquor in magazines, papers, movies, billboards, etc. how degrading this would feel. To know you are used for porn or selling products or being a maid and on top of all this you cannot choose to do what you want with your body.
These are the social relations that you will find in every capitalist society on this planet. In capitalist society women are commodities used to birth children and create more toilers, more people to fight there wars for empire, to sell their products in advertisements. Like all slaves this will continue until these shackles are broken until at last we sever the umbilical cord that ties us to this capitalist beast.
Marx summed up the situation in the '4 alls' when he said the abolition of all class distinctions, of all the production relations on which those class distinctions rest, of all the social relations that correspond to those production relations, and the revolutionizing of all the ideas that correspond to those social relations.” So he explains in the 4 all's that everything is related. The social relations is how the people interact how we treat each other how we treat women in this society defines our social relations, how we treat different people whether they live in the barrio, the ghetto projects on a reservation how society is treated. Social relations correspond to the production relations. The production relations are the way in which we produce, do we produce for consumption to sustain the people or do we produce to accumulate capital and produce commodities, these different production relations will affect the social relations everything works hand in hand.
International women’s day should be a good day for prisoners those most politically advanced (vanguard) to raise the woman question and spark discussion about women in capitalist america. Those who maintain study groups and think tanks should pose the questions: what are the dangers of patriarchy? What have been the advances for women in the last 50 years? What have been the primary obstacles? And what have been the biggest setbacks? Who are five women political prisoners in america? Who are five women revolutionarys out in society?
In what country are women most oppressed? In what country are women most advanced? And lastly what can we do personally to assist in emancipating women?
These are some questions that every revolutionary should know or take the time to find out, and discuss and grapple with these questions with other prisoners on the [tier] or on the yards wherever you may be. When we shoot to be the most politically advanced prisoner it consists on all levels and all subjects, women are a major part of a better world they are and will be a major contributor in a better world so let us help to unleash women’s true potential.
En la lucha
