Concrete Cages as Classrooms for Learning Socialism

We received this correspondence from the Prisoners Revolutionary Literature Fund.

Greetings! I read & re-read a few times the talk by Bob Avakian “Dictatorship and Democracy, and the Socialist Transition to Communism.” I found it very informative. As I sat here in my concrete cell buried in the belly of the beast known as the “S.H.U.” (segregated housing units), I felt as if I was there in the room hearing this talk of transitioning society from socialism to communism & wrestling with the many ideas that were discussed in this talk. I really agree with the concept of “solid core with a lot of elasticity” and as I re-read this particular paragraph I could see the necessity of allowing the people to have “room” to work out ideas & concepts to advance the particular situation. I really seen where Bob Avakian was coming from and I really enjoyed his talk. I remembered reading part of this talk in the paper but for some reason I seemed to grasp it a whole lot more clearly reading the whole thing.

Being in prison especially in the “SHU” you will either mentally sink or swim and I think Bob Avakian hit on this in this talk when he talked about how most proletariat out in society spend most of their time working & trying to survive & are unable to focus on studying politics but some people get the opportunity to turn their attention to society. Well I think inmates have this opportunity. Especially those in the “holes” & SHUs we can learn what society is about and teach others. As one can imagine reading material with any progressive content is slim to none in these places so the literature I receive from PRLF is crucial to me & the other comrades as well as to other inmates who I share this material with. I try to expose as many inmates I can to communist literature and during my yard time out in the dog run cages I partake in conversations to get people to talk & share their views of this society and how we can change it, the methods used in the past & possibilities for the future…

I try to utilize these concrete cages as classrooms for learning socialism and preparing the minds in here to what a different world may look like & how we can get there. The Revolution paper helps me a lot & is planting the seeds in many inmates who would normally never read of Marx, Lenin, or Mao.

P.S. Can I receive more literature? Thank you.

Prisoner in California (Tehachapi, CA)

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