Maoist Communist Party – Organizing Committee

Slavery never ended in the United States. This country was built and is still reliant on unpaid, forced labor, in mines, mills, plantations, ships, and other sites of production. The working class is that which has nothing to lose and has a material interest in making revolution to destroy this slave order and slave state. The laws of history clearly demonstrate that the time of the US Empire, along with that of the Zionist entity of “Israel” which enslaves the Palestinian people on their own national territory, along with all other settler colonial slave states, is running out. We are rapidly approaching the stage of no return. We must seize the time and destroy this imperialist-capitalist order before it destroys us. It is essential that we follow the eternal words of Black Panther Party Field Marshal George Jackson and put aside our petty quarrels and quibbling over dogma and irrelevant things, realize that fascism has been here and that we must unite the many to defeat the few. The many that we as Communists seek to unite with are all who have a vested interest in destroying this order of things and advancing towards a socialist order. To this end, we unite firmly with the brave and heroic workers held captive by the State of Florida who have declared a general strike, beginning on Martin Luther King Day (January 15th).

Material support is a necessity wherever there is uprising. Banner drops, fundraisers for the legal defense of arrested people, call ins, mass demonstrations, letter writing campaigns, and educational activities all help bolster the spirit of the rebels, inform the masses, generate mass support, and unfold a movement and culture of resistance. Most importantly, these activities raise the political consciousness of the masses of people. This is mass work and this is solidarity from workers, to workers. How can activists and revolutionaries from the outside show support for the revolutionaries inside?

Educate, Educate, Educate! Teach people about the prison-industrial complex. Tie in the oppression of people here in American prisons with the Israeli Zionist oppression of Palestinians. What is an oppressed nationality? Why are there so many Black and Brown people in prison? What happened at Attica in 1971? Who was George Jackson? What is a political prisoner? How are prisoners exploited? Start here. Form links with current and former prisoners and arrange for them to speak to your church group, class, or organization about the struggle on the inside.

Become familiar with the demands of the Operation PUSH movement and spread them. The comrades inside demand the following:

Payment for our labor, rather than the current slave arrangement

Ending outrageous canteen prices

Reintroducing parole incentives to lifers and those with Buck Rogers dates

Along with these primary demands, we are also expressing our support for the following goals:

• Stop the overcrowding and acts of brutality committed by officers throughout FDOC which have resulted in the highest death rates in prison history.

Expose the environmental conditions we face, including extreme temperatures, mold, contaminated water, and being placed next to toxic sites such as landfills, military bases and phosphate mines (including a proposed mine which would surround the Reception and Medical Center prison in Lake Butler).

Honor the moratorium on state executions, as a court-ordered the state to do, without the legal loophole now being used to kill prisoners on death row.

Restore voting rights as a basic human right to all, not a privilege, regardless of criminal convictions.

Call the Florida Department of Corrections. Do not use your name or give any identifying information on yourself or others, especially if they are participating in the strike. Mention that you are a supporter of the striking prisoners and unite fully with their demands. Cite all demands mentioned above. For example, say: “I am a friend of the Florida revolutionary movement of prison labor. The conditions in which your state and this country holds people is horrible. I demand that you meet the demands of these workers that you have kidnapped and tortured for simple democratic rights, such as the ending of extortion by charging them ridiculous prices for basic needs (why does soup cost $12 when I can get it from Publix or Walgreens for $4), paying people fair wages for their work, and the reinstatement of parole rights.” Keep it simple, but get your message across. The best is to arrange this so that as many people can call as possible to tie up phone lines and shut it down. The OC and mass organizations affiliated with us will be scheduling frequent call in dates.

Endorse the campaign. Prepare a letter of solidarity and support and email it to: fighttoxicprisons@gmail.com.

Build a united front in your city or state of all progressive, principled organizations to support the strikers materially, emotionally and politically. Draw parallels between Florida and your own state or city. Organize letter writing campaigns to prisoners, particularly political ones. Also arrange to make frequent donations to inmates’ commissary accounts.

Begin mass demonstrations/banner drops. There have already been several in Florida with at least one arrest. These should not just be flash in the pan, pop up actions, but should bring passersby and political fence riders into the movement. Prepare flyers and propaganda and distribute them at work (don’t get fired), school, church, and other areas. Build a diverse speaker base. Furthermore, demonstrations should be seen as recruitment opportunities for the broad anti-prison movement and the revolutionary movement as a whole. Do not engage with police at demonstrations, request police escorts, or anything of that nature. Be sure to promote and build a united front and mobilize as many people as possible. Take concrete measures to ensure security of participants, the first being, obviously, to isolate and exclude the police, not publishing march routes or lists of speakers, isolation of reactionary elements, and holding meetings beforehand of organizers and mass contacts to ensure that all are on the same page.