[From a prison in the southern US], 8/24/11

I recived Issue No.239 of Revolution about a week ago.  When I read the front Page (Pelican Bay hunger Strikers:  We are Humans) my heart began beating excitedly and a smile crossed my face.  When I finished the entire issue I was left with a bitter-sweet taste in my mouth.  Sweet because my brothers and fellow Prisoners in California are standing up against the oppresive, imperialist beast and demanding their right to be treated like the human beings that they are.  I can feel their Pain to the fullest and am in full support of their struggle because I currently find myself confined in a close management, high security unit where we suffer as much or perhaps more than the brothers in Pelican Bay.

Bitter because, one, I am not in Pelican Bay and can not Participate directly in the struggle being waged at the moment; and two, because of the sad situation here in Florida Prisons.

The concentration camp I’m currently in is only minutes away from Alabama, so the oppression and racism is almost unbearble.  The pigs here really come to work for the purpose of making us suffer; and I’m  talking about 98% of them from the lowest c.o. to Medical Personel, classification officers and up to the warden.  Every day we are treated like animals, or perhaps worst than animals:  we are denied recreation, Showers, food trays and access to the law and regular liberies;  we get sprayed with chimical agents and stripped bare constantly; our grievances are thrown away as well as our regular mail; when the warden or assistant warden comes around and we complain to them about  the abuse, they tell their captains, the captains tell their sergeants and the sergeants along with their officers come and oppress us even more so that we stop complaining.  With these tactics of terror and oppression they have the entire close management population submitted to their will.

All this is sad, but even more sad is that—unlike the brothers at Pelican Bay—the Prisoners here don’t want to do a thing to change the oppressive conditions in which we are forced to live in…

Yes, I am criticizing my fellow Prisoners in XX  because it’s the truth.   How ever, for some years now, I’ve been studying and looking for the correct strategy to help change this self-oppressing mentality.  It is a task so frustrating that a week ago I was at the verge of giving up on it.  But thankfully I recived Issue No.: 239 of Revolution which didn’t allow me to give up and gave me the motivation to go harder.  The brothers at Pelican Bay have been a greet inspiration for me and I’m sure that for others around the country, too.  It gives us needed courage because it shows us that it is Possible (and our only hope) to face and take the enemy head on, and that unity is the key to liberation. We must unite like the brother in California (no matter what race or gang), and resist our opressors. If some of [us] shall die, we shall die content that we died for a cause worth dying.

P.S.  I received the latest book you sent me “Away With All Gods”.  Thank you, it is a great book.  I have noticed that for some reason the prisoners here are more interested in that book than they are any of my other ones…

Lastly I wanted to ask if you could “Please” send me any of the following works by Bob Avakian if you have them.

1-Marxism and the Call of the Future:
2-Observations on Art and Culture, Science & Philosophy
3-Phony Communism is Dead…Long live Real Communism!

Thank you for the support & solidarity.  Comrade JJ