From a Prisoner:
On the Election, Workings of the System, and COVID Pandemic: “Our sanitized torture chambers (cells) have now become death chambers for some”
| revcom.us
Dear Comrades & Friends,
I find it necessary to begin this letter with the following quoted passages from two of Bob Avakian’s talks:
For those who cannot help but hunger for a “return” to some kind of “normalcy” as an answer to the madness of Trump, Pence and the rest—forget it, it is not going to happen!
And nobody should want a return to the “normalcy” of this system. The “normalcy” of this system has always included the barbaric oppression of Black people and other people of color, with systematic terror, brutality and murder to enforce this oppression.
—“Radical Change Is Coming: Will It Be Emancipating, or
Enslaving—Revolutionary, or Reactionary?”…Trump’s initial denial of the scope and danger posed by this virus and his continuing lies about this; his gross American chauvinism, pitting this country against the rest of the world; his repeated tendency to recklessly deny medical science and ignore the recommendations of medical experts where it runs counter to his own narrowly conceived and dangerously shortsighted interests and objectives; and more—all this amplifies and fortifies the barriers that the “normal functioning” of the capitalist-imperialist system places in the way of a systematic and coordinated approach to combating the coronavirus.
—“The Deadly Illusion of ‘Normalcy’ and
the Revolutionary Way Forward”
Forgive me if I am unable to share in, or relate to the understandably felt (given the enormous stakes) euphoria and ecstasy of Biden’s win over Trump at the polls. Although, as the days go by, it is becoming clear that Trump’s 21st century Brownshirts (MAGA fascists) will not be voted away.
Since the age of 13 years old, I have spent most of my life buried alive beneath cold steel and concrete. I am now 41 years old. Just another statistic of the mass casualties resulting from the “normal workings” of this system, “normal workings” such as poverty, the “War on Drugs,” the declaring of us to be “super predators” by Hillary Clinton, Biden and Clinton’s “Crime Bill,” mass incarceration, and the spawning of Trump and his base of MAGA fascists … all of which can be traced back to when the first ships carrying African slaves arrived to the shores of this country—a country that was founded on, and baptized in the blood and bones of genocide and slavery. (See BA’s “The Trump/Pence Regime Must Go!” and “Fascists Today and the Confederacy: A Direct Line, A Direct Connection Between All the Oppression.”)
On December 3, I tested positive for COVID-19. Last month, before Thanksgiving, there was an outbreak on my unit. As of Nov. 24, 78 officers were “pending test results” and 24 inmates had tested positive. That number has since skyrocketed. Once I reported my symptoms of losing my sense of smell and taste, fatigue and migraines on December 2, I was immediately removed from the unit and placed on an “Isolation” wing that consist of 78 cells per wing—all of which are filled up.
“Medical Isolation” here is being treated more as a punitive measure rather than anything having to do with our health. At first, we were being denied access to our property. We were simply placed in a cell with the clothes we were wearing, given a towel, and bedding, and told we will be given a shower once every 7 days. Once inmates heard about the deplorable conditions of isolation, they stopped reporting their symptoms, which now has led some inmates in being hospitalized.
Our sanitized torture chambers (cells) have now become death chambers for some. (Go to revcom.us and check out “Covid-19 Catastrophe Inside U.S. Prisons and Jails.”)
As I end this letter, I would like to request the following from the Prisoners Revolutionary Literature Fund:
- Any and all info on the symptoms, and possible long-term effects of COVID-19, as well as the efficacy of the various vaccines
- Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America
- Oil, Power, and Empire
- Science and Revolution, by Ardea Skybreak
There is no “normal” of this system that does not involve systematic injustice, continuing outrage and horror, for people here and all over the world.
—Bob Avakian
Revolution—Nothing Less!
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